The Expression Experiments

Session 01
7-10 PM | Thursday, 29th April 2010 | Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi

‘The Expression Experiments’ is a series of performances that cross-pollinate the arts, bridging old and new cultures. Hosted inside traditional cultural venues and accompanied by contemporary art exhibits, ‘The Expression Experiments’ promise to create new perspectives in the consumption of art.

A. Classical Music Re-Imagined – 60 min
Divided in two sections that explore Indian and Western Classical music, these performances overlay purist classical pieces with new media in the form of live visuals and narratives presented by Thiruda from the audiovisual ensemble – BLOT. The juxtaposition of large scale projections with the musicians at once forges new meanings hidden in the folds of the music, and makes the music more accessible to unaccustomed ears.

The first section is a solo performance by accomplished classical guitarist Shyamant Behal. Trained in Paris for several years, and now a performer, teacher and lead of the New Delhi Guitar Quartet, Shyamant is a rare breed of young Western classical musicians in the country who live by their music and straddle old and new musical traditions with as much ease and enthusiasm. Shyamant is also the curator for Western classical music at ArtHouse.

The second section is an inspiring jugalbandi between tabla and sitar exponents Somnath and Amitabh. On the back of very successful experiment at Mocha ArtHouse recently, this pair accompanied by BLOT have an agenda to broaden the canvas and audience of Indian classical music. The nature and content of the juxtaposed visuals challenges notions of what constitutes the presentation of Indian cultural content . Somnath is the curator for Indian classical music at ArtHouse.

B. Bharatanatyam in a New Light – 45 min
Acclaimed Bharatanatyam exponent and Guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar will be giving a preview of her new project that juxtaposes traditional Bharatanatyam with electronic music and visuals, courtesy of Sattyananda (Audio Aashram) and BLOT. The visuals in this piece will be composed to heighten the communication of the language of dance and to give an evocative insight into the nuances and semantics of the dance form. Using multiple camera angles and frames, the performance attempts a ‘Cubist’ approach to the presentation of the dance.

Jayalakshmi Eshwar learnt Bharatanatyam at the legendary Kalakshetra school in Chennai, is also the author of 3 books on the dance form, runs her own dance group Abhinayaa, and has travelled extensively around the world performing and teaching for the past 4 decades.

C. Nucleya + Thiruda’s New Culture Mash-Up – 45 min
Udyan Sagar, better known as Nucleya is an electronic music producer and DJ, who has been a partner in some defining Indian electronica projects such as Bandish Projekt and Order Of The Essence, producing a distinctive and wildly diverse style of drum n bass, dubstep, electro and bollywood remixes. Nucleya has teamed up with Thiruda (BLOT) for a new experimental, live performance project aimed at sit-down audiences. This project – presently dubbed as the New Culture Mash-Up – slices and remixes original content with kitsch films, bad television and Indian and global popular culture with the intent of humour, reflection and a live audiovisual experience that is as mad as it is planned, using new media and technology to create a fast paced journey through the modern history of music and visuals.