India is a confluence of cultures and has
always been a nest for relevant exchanges of the arts. Several artists from the
world, across genres, covering various art forms have come to the different
parts of the country in search of meaningful collaborations. Over the past
months, between October and December a few International collaborations
happened in West Bengal. Some musical groups from different parts of the world like
Switzerland, Italy and Belgium came to have dialogues with local musicians of
the region and explore the varied traditional art and craft practices.
Swiss musicians Duo Fatale comprising Jopo
and Ingeborg Poffet, recently came to West Bengal to explore the heritage of
the region and collaborate. They extensively traveled through the state,
absorbing different folk cultures and indigenous art forms of the locals as
well as their lifestyles. In the course of their exploration they also
collaborated with various groups of local musicians, including Bauls, Fakirs of
Bengal and other urban musicians coming from various genres. The collaborations comprised of many instrumental
conversations between Eastern and Western cultures of music like a dialogue of Dotara
and saxophone, accordion and table. Duo Fatale also visited the village
festivals POT Maya in Pingla and Baul Fakir Utsav in Gorbhanga where they played
music and built discourses with local artists.
Sicilian trio group Oi Dipnoi traversed
across Bengal to explore the cultural nuances and collaborate with the local
musicians. They jammed with Dotara, Khamak, Tabla bringing in Western tunes
from Diatonic Accordion, Bagpipe and Mouth harp. They travelled to Tepantar
village festival and had a great experience amid the greenery of a Theatre and
performance village, where they also played music. The highlight of their
musical experiments was with Sumanta Das Baul, who according to a member of Oi
Dipnoi, was using minor scale with lower second grade in his singing, which was
quite interesting and fresh to the Western structure of music. They felt a
sense of familiarity with the sounds of some instruments, like the Harmonium,
which they related to the Accordion. They also did an improvisation concert
with Surma Dohar Trio.
Louvat Bros, a Bluegrass group from Belgium
recently came to play experimental music with several musical collectives and
solo musicians of Kolkata. With Babu Fakir, they jammed with Fakiri music, contriving
new tunes. With classical songs by Argha Kamal, an urban musician, they
improvised playing bluegrass music. They also experimented with other genres
like Rabindra Sangeet, Shari Songs (songs of high-tides) and composed a
collaborative song with influences from Bhatiali (boatswain’s music). A five
string experiment was the high point of all their travelling and
collaborations, wherein they jammed with five different Western and Eastern string
instruments like Mandolin, Banjo, Bass guitar, Guitar and Dotara. They also
played the inaugural concert for Black Box Theatre Hall opening at Tepantar
Village.
The collaborations open the avenues for
variable possibilities of cultural exchange of Eastern and Western indigenous
as well as contemporary traditional art forms.
Collaborations with
International Musicians hosted by banglanatak dot com
Louvat Bros journey in
India
Duo Fatale journey in
India
Oi Dipnoi journey in
India
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