Music lovers were in for a treat of a different kind in the recently held Sound Reasons music festival of sound art, contemporary jazz and electronic music. The blend of ambient soundscapes, improvised music and a bit of every imaginable artistic noise came together in perfect harmony as artistes from Switzerland and India performed to a packed audience in the fourth edition of the festival held in collaboration with Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council in India, at Shoonya.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Bengaluru leg of the festival that goes on till January 2016 across various cities in India, the artistes share their thoughts on bringing their unique sounds to the country and their passion for music.
Niki Tiphticoglu aka Grace Core from Switzerland says her first trip abroad was to India a couple of years back and she feels happy to be back. “I’m coming more from the clubbing scene of techno and house music. This festival is more about ambient music and I’m going to go out on a limb here and try something completely new.” She adds that one of her many influences is Indian music. “The most I know are mantras and Bollywood music. I wish I could do something as beautiful as Indian music. I use a bit of samples from mantras. It’s all about the vibe for me.” She points out that while she always wanted to be a musician, she never got to learn until she discovered laptop music. “I taught myself and learnt intuitively. I hope I can inspire anyone who wants to be a musician to follow their dreams.”
Gaudenz Badrutt from Switzerland is an improvising electronics musician who began his career as a classical pianist and found his love in experimental music. “I’m always interested in the way a city sounds. Bangalore’s sounds, however, are too heavy for me. I play an improvised solo set using acoustic and minimalistic sounds with a live sampling from the computer. I dwell a lot on deconstruction and reconstruction of sound. I try to find richness in each sound. For me electronic music is not far away from classical music. It’s freer of course. It’s also in the direction of noise.” He adds that he likes people who listen to him to become more conscious of listening.”
Festival director and musician Ish S. who performs as diFfuSed beats + edGeCut says the idea behind Sound Reasons is to help push the diversity of electronic music. We try to incorporate its homogeneity in our performances. There are installations and gigs and a whole lot of improvisations involved.”
City based electronic musicians Shreyas Dipali and Nikhil Narendra return to performing together after almost a year at Sound Reasons combining synths and samples with drums and percussions.
“We are performing in a completely different direction from our band The Bicycle Days, which in on an indefinite hiatus. This is just a whole bunch of experiments incorporated together. We work individually and bring our vast influences together by condensing them experimentally. We like the music to take you in whatever direction it takes you. People should feel uplifted. We can get really heavy and dark sometimes, but it’s very uplifting for us. It always works for a niche crowd. But we don’t want it to be that way. This music is for everyone. A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to listen to this music and festivals like this will go a long way in promoting our music,” the duo says.
The event also featured Swiss sound artiste Gilles Aubry and Robert Millis, a sound artist, producer, guitarist and composer based in Switzerland
For more on the festival visit www.soundreasons.in
