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MUSIC
By Varsha Suman
22 December, 2016
The location, this time, was revealed to be Puma Social Club in Indira Nagar. As promised, it was an intimate venue, lit up with fairy lights giving it a dreamy vibe, quite apt for the music playing that night. Every corner of the place had little surprises to offer, courtesy The Alipore Post. There was poetry on the walls, old fashioned games like carrom boards and UNO cards spread around, Goobe’s book stall in one nook and quirky Alipore Post merchandise tucked in another.
Alipore Post is a newsletter that sends out curated poetry, art and music to people inboxes every day. You can get the free newsletter by signing up here: http://tinyletter.com/thealiporepost
Once I had the feel of the place, I went to check out the workshops I had signed up for. WHEN POETRY MET ELECTRONICA! The first workshop was meant to blend poetry and music to create art. Conducted by Cosmic attic, participants were invited to walk up and record poems. Some were poignant, some heartfelt, some heartbroken and some plain silly. The recordings were then mixed with music to create lyrical compositions. This fun workshop was really enjoyed by the participants.
VINYL MIXING FOR BEGINNERS was the next to come. Conducted by Patricia Le Andre, this was an interesting workshop for music lovers. Though there were no chairs to sit and people were standing around Patricia Le Andre, hearing her talk, no one seemed to mind. Everyone listened transfixed as she took us through her childhood and spoke about where her love for music stems from. Her session about the technicalities of turntables and vinyls was interspersed with tit-bits about growing up in the USA, the African-American culture, the power of music as a survival tool and her easy humour. The participants got to experiment with the turntables and vinyls themselves after.
JUGGLING (FOR THE CLUMSY) was the most fun of the workshops. An eclectic bunch of people, standing around is a circle, in the middle of a dimly lit club, trying to learn juggling is one of the funniest sights that you will see. There was more dropping than catching as professional juggler, Gunjan Saraf, got us started with the workshop. It turned out to be more dangerous than one would imagine juggling can get, with frantic tries to catch the balls landing a blow or a kick on a couple of unlucky participants. In the end, even the person with no hand-eye co-ordination (that would be me) learnt a trick or two.
Electronic Music – The initiation
With the workshops done, it was time for the gigs! Kumail, an electronic musician from Mumbai started off with his set. His music, which is quite experimental and has varied influences, was enjoyed by the small group of audience in attendance. Dreamy notes and ambient sounds were blended with electronic music and multicoloured lights that put the listeners in a trance-like state.
Kumail was followed by the main act of the night, Daisuke Tanabe, an electronic musician and a producer based in Chiba, Japan. Though it did not begin until 11:30 in the night, it was so worth the wait.
The place had steadily picked up quite a crowd and conversations were flowing. Daisuke played his signature surreal music that caught the audiences in a spell. The Japanese influences mixed with alien-sounding electronic music is so much better than the way I’ve made it sound. Though unfamiliar with electronic music, I was still disappointed when his act ended.
What did I get out of the evening? A new artist to follow, backache from picking up the balls while juggling, better hand-eye coordination (I hope), an interest in starting a Vinyl collection and great conversations with strangers! An evening well spent, I would say.
The event was conducted by The Humming Tree in association with Knowmad records and Alipore Post.
