Yash Sahai
Project Summary: Western harmonization techniques dominate the urban music landscape, irrespective of the
language of the song, since it is associated closely to the most popular instruments for composers
nowadays, the guitar and the piano.
The idea is to capture the flavor of the local music and couple it with western harmony. This
introduces the locals to a new style of music, while introducing the urban audience to the local
musicians in a more accessible manner.
The “shop” could hold interactive sessions. Rhythm exercises for kids and adults, creating beats and vocal sections in a live session, etc. All of this can be recorded and used. Folk songs, bedtime lullabies, any and every song can be recorded. Think of a “Jam Room for All”. Local artists can provide the right sonic landscape over which we can create a story about the community, in the voice of its people.
The attempt would be to dissolve the boundaries between western and local music in an aesthetic
way, while bringing the local community closer together through the experience of live music.
(Almost) A week in Gunehar, HP
The village of Gunehar is crawling with the sounds of nature. The local folk music and instruments do a brilliant job of integrating themselves with this soundscape. The city and the music I know are alien to this land, and the rhythm of the village lets me realize this in full measure. The idea is to place myself in this setting with my instruments and see how well can I dissolve myself through my music. As the ideas condense into a process, I will have more concrete evidence of this to share, but for now, listen to a few of the sounds I recorded over the week.
Week Two in Gunehar
I have had over a week’s time jamming with the tracks that I recorded (see the previous post). The stories that people told me, the songs they sang and the music they played have ethereal poetry to them. There’s an acceptance here for the vagaries of life that has an incredibly calm and stable presence. Hoping some of that translates into the music:
Track 1: A woman remembers a village boy. He was a soldier who died at the war, a singer and a family man. I imagined the music personifying the man, marking his presence, if only in the stories of him that people still speak.
Track 2: The women on this track are over a hundred years old. They joke about not singing without their local brew, the talk of their village further up in the mountains, and are probably the coolest people I have ever met.
Track 3: The shehnai player nails the blues as the locals gather at the temple to celebrate the success of a village girl, who secured a job at the city. I wanted to recreate the feeling of home for the girl if she ever listens to this.
Further updates to come as some of my ideas with these tracks come to fruition. Watch this space for more!