The wonderful folks at THE KABIR PROJECT have informed us of advent of their excellent Kabir Festival in Mumbai. From 17th – 19th February 2012, the festival plays host to a full spectrum of musicians from across India who sing Kabir Songs in a variety of regional dialects and musical moods. The most gracious Padma Shree awardee, Prahlad Tipanya and party will be there once again as will the ever exuberant Mukhtiyar Ali and party. If you are in Mumbai it is highly recommended you attend!
Kabir Festival is focused to introduce the audiences of Mumbai to the message of Kabir which is perhaps even more relevant today than it was in his time. A confluence of films as well as live folk music by folk artist from different parts of India including Rajasthan, Kutch, Malwa. The three days of the festival will have multiple events at different locations, all completely free and open to the public on first-come-first-served basis.
The All-India Sufi & Mystic Music Festival takes place in multiple cities across India each year. November & December 2011 will see 3 weekends of performances at Purana Qila, Delhi, the Horniman Circle Gardens , Mumbai and Tollygunge Club, Kolkata featuring a broad spectrum of International musicians.
We’ll be posting a review of the Mumbai shows later this month, but here is something to whet your mystic appetite in the form of the complete list of performances featured :-
NEW DELHI
19th November 2011, Purana Quila, Delhi Zikr-e-Rifayi – Fakirs (Andhra Pradesh)
Jikir-Jari – Hafiza Begum Choudhury & Group (Assam)
Baul Songs – Parvathy Baul (West Bengal)
Sema – Whirling Dervishes (Turkey)
Kabirbani – Mukhtiyar Ali & Group (Rajasthan)
Sufi Qawwali – Fareed Ayaz & Group (Pakistan)
The BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury Festival 2011 seemed to include only one “World Music” artist, Omar Souleyman from Syria. His set was a fantastic opportunity to embrace something of the spirit of the modern Syrian music format which was one guy on synths (playing both traditional melodic riffs and percussive fills) and a Setar player doubling up on the riffs, and Omar himself who was not so much the lead singer, but the charismatic front man who was the face of the music, occasionally giving shououts to himself or singing a little riff on the main melody line. Most of all he was looking cool in his shades and middle eastern attire .
The sonic spectrum of electronica that they were using are characterised by the basic and rawness that is typical of modern middle eastern popular music. Keyboards must be able to use Quarter tones in order to play the traditional melodic riffs and bigger synthesiser manufacturers like Korg, Roland & Yamaha do not market synths with quarter tone capability, so its down to smaller manufacturers like GEM to cater for the Specialist Middle Eastern / Arabic music markets. Our Moroccan musician friends have a special additional pad plugged into their GEM keyboard, that was used to shift tunings on the main keyboard, allowing them to reach all the notes they needed for each composition.
Of course, in many ways I would have preferred to hear these tunes played by a 15 piece Arabic Ensemble with Oud, Setar, Tar, Daf and Doumbak. But part of the raw charm of the music comes form being part of the typical sound of Arabic Pop.
Noodreem has been invited to appear at this years Glade Festival. The Glade takes place 10, 11, 12 June 2011 and is the UK’s foremost Electronica and Dance music festival with a particular leaning to the less commercial aspects of the Electronic Music Scene therefore guaranteeing highly experimental and awesome new music. Headlining this years Glade are Trentemoller, Global Communications, Andrew Wetherall, Dreadzone, London Elektricity and Photek. Glade showcases both new and established artists and constantly makes effort to produce a world class, modern tribal technological festival.
Noodreem on the Inspiral Stage
Noodreem will be appearing on the most excellent Inspiral Stage on the last day of the event. He will be premiering new tracks and mixes at Glade, sharing beautful ethnotronic psychedelic ambience; a sonic parachute to create a gentle landing after the exceptional highs over the weekend! He will be The stage will feature such ambient luminaries throughout the weekend as International Observer, Ishq, Mixmaster Morris and Tripswitch.
Ashirvad / Noodreem & DJ Darren Sangita at Boom Festival 2010.
Boom Festival 2010 ,the epic multi-disciplinary psychedelic arts festival in Portugal play host to Sangita Sounds artists.
Ashirvad & Noodreem will be playing live sets in the Ambient Paradise and DJ Darren Sangita will be playing a 4 hour epic set. This illustrious festival has been going for a decade and is the foremost of its kind. With 25,000 cosmic spirits in attendace it will surely be an epic collective of high minds and light beings
The new album from Ashirvad, which will have a full release in September is to have a proper outing at the Boom. Featuring numerous classical musicians from India, tracks from this spiritually soaked epic electroacoustic album is sure to create transcendental waves for surfing into bliss! Noodreem will also be sharing his latest sonic excursions and ambient trance vibrations in exquisite sonic style, with his latest tracks being born in the Mystical town of Glastonbury.
DJ Darren Sangita will weave an exotic blend of mystical grooves, illuminating dubs and ethnospheric shimmers in his inimitable style. Join him to know the pleasures of sharing a sonic journey around the world and landing back just in time for tea! Expect to reach depths that touch the bottom of the Ocean and Highs that match any Himalayan vista.
There are many beliefs about Lord Shiva and his night of Maha Shivratri, one of our favourites is that this is the night of Lord Shiva’sCosmic Dance of the Ananda Tandava (Dance of Bliss). May his Grace bless you in these days and the dance of bliss extend to all fellow Brothers and Sisters of our Beautiful Planet.
The significance of the Nataraja sculpture is said to be that Siva is shown as the source of all movement within the cosmos, represented by the arch of flames. The purpose of the dance is to release men from illusion, and the place where it is said to have been performed, Chidambaram, called the centre of the universe, is in reality within the heart. The gestures of the dance represent Siva’s five activities (pañcakrtya): creation (symbolized by the drum), protection (by the “fear-not” pose of the hand), destruction (by the fire), embodiment (by the foot planted on the ground), and release (by the foot held aloft).
The eminent Indian Music and arts organisation, Darbar, have just announced their line up for this years impressive Darbar festival.
The festival encompasses North and South Indian music traditions, along with film exhibitions, free workshops and a chance to meet and discuss with some of the artists.
A veritable feast of Classical Indian Musicians will resonate their marvellous music in the city of London for the main body of the events, from 1st – 4th April 2010. No doubt the city is blessed to have such a dazzling array of stars in its midst and I heartily encourage anyone with an interest in the magic of music to attend any of these excellent performances.
With such esteemed heavyweight musicians such as as Shiv Kumar Sharma (Santoor), Anindo Chatterjee (Tabla) and the Gundecha Brothers (Dhrupad Vocal) the line up is drenched in promise. Lesser know but no less talented appearances from artists such as the Canartic vocal duo Ranjani & Gayatri are sure to captivate British audiences and leave them spellbound. The magical tones of Kaushal Das on Sitar are also sure to delight the listener and reveal nuances of music that will illuminate and enthrall. I have blogged many times about the great Indian Classical Music festivals such as Dover Lane Conference in Kolkata or Dhrupad Mela in Varanasi, but this really is the closet thing we are going to get this side of the Indian Ocean.
The line-up is listed here with more details below:-
Festival elements…
Carnatic vocal and instrumental | North Indian Hindustani vocal | Dhrupad | Western Operatic | Free Workshops | Audience with the artists | Films | Mini-concerts | Concerts throughout the day
The line-up…
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma | Patricia Rozario | Veena Sahasrabuddhe | Rohan de Saram | Dhruba Ghosh | Bhupinder Chaggar | Hari Sivanesan | T Pirashanna | Kousic Sen | Satyajit Talwalkar | Dharambir Singh | Sunil Kant Gupta | Shahbaz Hussain | Ranjani and Gayatri | Jyotsna Srikanth | H. S. Sudhindra | Sanju Sahai | Kushal Das | Pandit Anindo Chatterjee | Ravi Shankar Upadhay | A K Palanivel | Rajhesh Vaidhya | Arun Prakash | Anirudh Athreya | Pandit Venkatesh Kumar | Soumik Datta | Neyveli Venkatesh | Gundecha Brothers
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