Sarod: Soumik Datta
Tabla: Gurdain Singh Rayatt
Camera: Theo Bard
Location sound: Adam Paroussos
Edit: Ben Browning/Theo Bard
This piece explores echoes and memory in Indian classical music. Soumik plays two compositions in ragas Zila and Bahar. In each composition, the melodic phrases are doubled creating counterpoint echoes that syncopate with the beat cycles played on tabla by Gurdain.
Inspired by the original compositions in Zila and Bahar by Ustad Mohammed Ameer Khan, Soumik compounds both ragas in one composition to point us towards the need to safeguard aural traditions and echo South Asian histories.
‘Echo Zila Echo Bahar’ is from Soumik Datta Arts’ 2023 production ‘Mone Rekho’ (or remember in Bengali), a segment of which was shared live at Dalston Eastern Curve Garden in June. The final ‘Mone Rekho’ production will premiere in autumn 2023.