An indian trip

Two movies ("Explorer" & "Trip") directed in the sixties by the famous Indian film-maker Pramod Pati. These two films, defined by the authorities as documentaries, look most like radical experimental movies. 

The music of these two movies was composed by Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao (1925 - 2011) who played classical Carnatic music for bamboo flute as well spent decades as chair of All India Radio’s Film Division. For these two film’ scores, he improved talent for abstract experimental music. 

Ces deux films ("Explorer" & "Trip") réalisés dans les années 60 par le cinéaste indien Pramod Pati, définis par les autorités de l’époque comme des documentaires, ressemblent en fait plus à des films expérimentaux d’une certaine radicalité. La musique de ces deux films a été composée par Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao (1925 - 2011) grand interprète de musique Carnatique pour flûte de bambou qui a aussi passé des décennies à la tête de la division cinéma de la Radio All India. Pour les musiques de ces deux films, il développe un certain talent pour une musique expérimentale et abstraite. 

"Explorer" (1968) uses avant-garde audiovisual techniques, optical illusions and visual perception, to explore the conflicting duality of urban India in the 1960s, caught between tradition and modernity, war and celebration, and science and religion.

Le court métrage "Explorer" (1968) utilise des techniques audiovisuelles d'avant-garde, illusions d'optique et perception visuelle, pour explorer la dualité conflictuelle de l'Inde urbaine des années 1960, prise entre tradition et modernité, guerre et célébration, science et religion. 

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"Trip" (1970) as a city symphony film, explores time through time-lapse photography in the city of Mumbai, using the pixilation technique. 

"Trip" (1970), que l'on peut considérer comme une symphonie urbaine, explore le passage du temps et le foisonnement de la ville de Mumbai en utilisant la technique de la pixilation.

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Indian slide guitar

 

Debashish Bhattacharya est un pionnier de la guitare slide indienne, jouant des ragas en utilisant la même technique que le style hawaïen. Le premier artiste indien à utiliser une guitare en acier dans la musique classique indienne a été Brij Bhushan Kabra, introduisant la guitare dans la musique classique indienne.

  

Enfant prodige, Debashish a commencé à jouer de la guitare à l'âge de trois ans. Initié au chant classique indien et étudiant auprès de Brij Bhushan Kabra ainsi que d'Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (sarod), il a été attiré par la guitare en raison de la façon dont elle pouvait imiter la voix humaine avec cette technique. Ses performances avec son frère Subhasis au tabla sont incroyables.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Debashish Bhattacharya is the pioneer of the indian slide guitar, playing raga with the same technical than the hawaiian style. The first Indian artist to use a steel guitar within classical Indian music was Brij Bhushan Kabra, bringing the guitar into Indian classical music. 

Debashish was a child prodigy who started playing guitar at the age of three.
Initiated into Indian classical vocal, and studying under Brij Bhushan Kabra as well Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (sarod) , he was drawn to the guitar because of the way it could emulate the human voice with a slide.
His performances with his brother Subhasis on tabla are amazing.

 

 

& a full Debashish's concert to listen to here

 

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Music for babies

 

 

"Music for babies" is a special mix for babies from 1 day to 99 years!

helpful for big heats & siestas as well

Mix, edit, program : Palix - november 1996 

with
Howie B - Toto Bissainthe - John Zorn - Morgan Fischer - Mauricio Kagel - Martha Itsvan - Blue Gene Tyranny - Pascal Comelade - Palix - ZNR - Michel Redolfi - Ry Cooder & U-Srivinas - Michel Chion - Brian Eno - Gavin Bryars - Tom Johnson - Max Eastley

& world' sound landscapes : Burundi, Belle-Île en mer, Inde, Hongrie, Mali, Suisse, Cameroun, Normandie, Thaïlande, Martinique, Haïti, Azerbaïdjan, Amazonie, Pyrénées …

part 1      part 2

OOO_OOO

Ustad Alauddin Khan & Ritwik Ghatak

Autour de la figure principale d'Ustad Alauddin Khan, fondateur de l'école Maihar Gharana et un des professeurs de musique les plus connus de la musique classique indienne:

mettant en vedette le jeune Ravi Shankar ainsi que d'autres musiciens et membres de sa famille, ce film rare a été réalisé par Ritwik Gatak, célèbre acteur, dramaturge et cinéaste bengali, d'obédience communiste et profondément marqué par l'exode subie par lui et sa famille en 1947, année de la Partition des Indes.

 

Around the main figure of Ustad Alauddin Khan, founder of the Maihar Gharana school as one of the most wellknowned music teacher of  indian classical music. Featuring the young Ravi Shankar as well other famous musicians and members of his family, this rare movie was directed by Ritwik Gatak, the famous bengali movie maker.

  

 

& un portrait de Ritwik Gatak  

this post was originally published in 2014

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Lata Mangeshkar

 RIP

Lata Mangeshkar, sans doute la plus grande voix féminine indienne - avec Asha Bhosle - qui a chanté plus de mille chansons au service du cinéma indien, en playback de très nombreuses actrices. Elle comptait à son répertoire plusieurs dizaines de milliers de chansons, interprétées dans des dizaines de langues.

 

 

Ici, dans le film romantique "Barsaat" de1949.

 

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Tabla solo

Prabhu Edouard is a great Indo-French percussionist, composer and producer, regarded as one of the most versatile tabla player of his generation.

His first CD "Kôlam" is now released at Lokanga.

 
His cosmopolitan nature and love for experiments have led him to collaborate with international artists like Jordi Savall, Nguyen Lê, Joachim Kühn, Magic Malik, Moriba Koïta, Saïd Shraïbi, Kudsi Erguner, Keyvan Chemirani, J.P.Drouet… 

He is as well a disciple of knowned tabla maestro Pandit Shankar Ghosh, and he uses to play with many indian masters as Laxmi Shankar, Ashish Khan, Debanish Bhattacharya ...

An amazing Prabhu Edouard's tabla solo at Guruji's house concert in Kolkata (Jan 2002).

Early Indian female singers

 

Gauhar Jaan (1873-1930) was the first female singer to record music on 78 rpm records in India. She was born as Angelina Yeoward on 26 June 1873 in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Her Armenian father, William Robert Yeoward, worked as an engineer in a dry ice factory, and married her Indian mother, Victoria Hemmings, in 1872. She gave her maiden performance at the royal courts of Darbhanga Raj in 1887 and was appointed as court musician, after receiving extensive dance and music training from a professional dancer at Vanarasi.

 

 

The famous folk-music searcher  Paul Vernon tells how recording music in India burst into life at the turn of the century HERE. This article was originally published in the magazine FolkRoots.

 

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Kodumudi Balambal Sundarambal (1908–1980) was an Indian theatre and film actress and singer from Erode district, Tamil Nadu. She performed in Tamil cinema and was referred to as the "Queen of the Indian stage"^. A political activist during the Indian independence movement, K.B. Sundarambal was the first film personality to enter a state legislature in India.

 

The french writer Henri Michaux was fascinated by her when he travelled in Asia.

"Je vis ensuite, à Madras, (Kodumudi Balambal) Sundarambal, la grande actrice tamoule, cantatrice merveilleuse, la seule très belle femme dravidienne que je vis et du plus vrai talent. Elle semblait avoir, à la fois, du sang dans le corps, et du pétrole. Quand elle apparut, elle écrasa les autres femmes (qui étaient des hommes). ... Elle essayait d'être humain. Elle y arrivait, sans doute." Henri Michaux  - "Un barbare en Asie"  1933

 

 &

more infos about Kodumudi Balambal Sundarambal's life: here

 

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Nooran Sisters

Jyoti and Sultana wellknown as "The Nooran Sisters" come from a family of musicians.

They have been trained in the field of traditional Sufi music for the past of 10 years

by their father Ustad Gulshan Meer, son of famous Late Ustad Sohan Lal.

Over the years they have won many awards.

Jyoti et Sultana sont mieux connues sous le nom de "Nooran Sisters" (du nom de leur mère)
Elles viennent d'une famille de musiciens et ont été formées à la musique Soufi

par leur père Ustad Gulshan Meer, fils du fameux Ustad Sohan Lal.

Elles gagnent de nombreux prix et ont un formidable succès dans le continent indien.

Puissance, souffle, charisme (notamment Jyoti pour sa présence et sa lumière),

elles ne laissent pas indifférentes. Formidable!

an incredible concert! in 2016

 

 

&

"Dama Dam Mast Kalandar" by the Nooran Sisters at Dhaka International Folkfest

& other concerts

 

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Rites of the imitators

 

Terry Riley live for two concert in Metz (France) in 1982 

Unknown recording mastered by the artist Eric Cordier *.

These 2 pieces, influenced by Pandit Prân Nath, 

his teacher and master of Indian classical song 

who also taught at La Monte Young in the sixties, 

were written for one voice and two synthesizers.

"Rites of the imitators"

  

"Offering to Chief Crazy Horse"

* Thanks to the french artist Eric Cordier who is cumulating many sound activities 

as musician, composer, curator, sound engineer and radio producer.

You can visit his website and his numerous projects here

and listen to his works there

 

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Tipu's tiger

Tipu's Tiger or Tippu's Tiger is an eighteenth-century wooden mechanical organ 

made around 1793, depicting a tiger mauling a man in European clothing. 

When the crank is turned, a hidden mechanism causes the man’s arm to goes up and down, and plays his wails of agony along the growls of the tiger. 

Under a flap on the tiger’s body there is also a small pipe organ, 

which can play 18 notes. 

It was created by Tipu Sultan, the Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in India.

Dr Renate Dohmen explores the historical contexts and technical marvel 

of this extraordinary and infamous musical automaton.

**I_v°v_I**

Amirtha Kidambi

Amirtha Kidambi is a multi talented artist invested in the creation and performance of music as vocalist and bandleader, with different influences as her native South Indian Carnatic music, Alice Coltrane and free jazz, classical modernism, harsh noise, metal and punk music.
She is bandleader of her amazing quartet Elder Ones, with Matt Nelson, Max Jaffe and Nick Dunston and the leader of her vocal quartet Lines of Light, featuring Anaïs Maviel, Emilie Lesbros and Jean-Carla Rodea.





She is also collaborating with Lea Bertucci, Mary Halvorson, Darius Jones, Matana Roberts, Trevor Dunn, William Parker and many other... and was also part of the cast for the "Crash"  opera of Robert Ashley.




and another concert at Kennedy Center in march 2019 : here

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Moog modular synthesizer in India

An interesting article of Alexander Keefe about David Tudor 

bringing the first Moog modular synthesizer in India in 1969

on "East of Borneo" website

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Dhrupad

Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of Hindustani classical music.
It is the oldest form of compositions in indian classical music and a form that is also found in the South Indian as Carnatic music.






The Dagar dynasty is the main stream for 19 generations to maintain the tradition of this music. They all belonged to a prestigious family of dhrupad singers whose founder was Baba Gopal Das, an Hindu who is said to have converted to Islam at the time of Emperor Muhammad Shah. His younger son Behram Khan established himself in Jaipur, where he became a court musician of great repute. He taught his brother's grandsons Allabande and Zakiruddin Khan who used to sing together, quickly asserting themselves as the foremost dhrupad vocalists of their time.

Ustad Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar (1934 - 1989) and Ustad Nasir Zahiruddin Dagar (1933 - 1994) are the younger brothers of the family. They trained many students, including Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, the son of Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar, who is keeping the family tradition alive along with other dagarvani exponents.
You can listen to their talent starting at 13' of this movie. Impressive!
and totaly amazing around 33'...




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You can also look to the 1982's movie titled "Dhrupad" directed by Mani Kaul.
(unfortunately, no subtitles)

*****

after years, my personal focus to this music was renewied recently by  "The Hum", the famous blog runned by Bradford Bailey whose ecclectic interrests cross miscellaneous musical fields as Fluxus, electroacoustic music, improvisation areas, figures as Henry Flynt, La Monte Young, Harry Partch, John Fahey, Steve Reich, James Tenney, Glenn Branca and many many others...
"The Hum": highly recommended!

Chemirani & The Rythm Alchemy

Dans un décor somptueux, une rencontre musicale à écouter.

Chemirani & The Rythm Alchemy au Cosmo Jazz Festival 2014

Keyvan Chemirani a souhaité cette fois-ci confronter l’édifice rythmique oriental au violoncelle de Vincent Segal et à la viole du violoniste Jasser Haj Youssef, tout en ajoutant les tablas de Prabhu Edouart ou les baguettes jazz du belge Stéphane Galland.

Autant de musiques ainsi réunies, ancrées dans des traditions fortes, ottomane, indienne, iranienne ou jazz, jouées par des musiciens généreux, curieux et ouverts, le Cosmo souhaitait accueillir ce nouveau projet de Keyvan, oscillant entre méditatif et festif, entre contempaltif et explosif, tout en groove, plaisir et jubilation.

Shaukar Janaki

Shaukar Janaki is a great South India's actress who acted in more than 350 Tamil movies.
 

 

 

!_-_!