In an effort to cut across geographical boundaries and foster collaborative music, the Amarrass Music Festival will bring to the city unknown voices and unique sounds from across the world.
The third-edition of the festival will have artistes from Mali/West Africa, the United States, Palestine, Colombia and Brazil perform with Indian folk artistes to create a platform from which Indian artistes will be noticed and receive invitations to perform at other such festivals across the world.
The festival will be held at Lodi-The Garden Restaurant on November 21 and 22, and include audio-visual presentations and workshops by artists, an instrument petting zoo, interaction with instrument makers, and food and drinks.
Festival curator Ankur says he has spent years fishing out records to discover new music and that the time he spent in the U.S. helped him discover a lot of new sounds. He says the festival hopes to capture the emotion and vibe of Indian folk music, and spread the mood created to various parts of the world. This will help revive our traditional sounds and help the artistes get noticed.
Day One, that begins at 7 p.m., is called ‘100 Strings’ and will feature Lakha Khan on the sarangi , and vocals with Dane Khan on dholak , Madou Sidki Diabate from Mali playing the kora and Mike Kashou from the U.S. playing the oud . The evening will end with a string jam, during which the unique instruments will be played together to create an experience unique to the festival.
Day Two will have two sessions. The first will begin at 2 p.m. and feature Mohan Lal Lohar on the morchang , Rais Khan of Barmer Boys and DJ Tudo presenting ethnomusicology/field recordings. The second session begins at 5 p.m. and is called Groove Me. It will feature Painted Caves from the U.S., Still Dirty from India, DJ Tudo from Brazil (who will perform with Rais Khan and Manga), Bagpipes of Punjab, Ikaro Valderrama from Columbia, and Ravana Tenheads from India.
The run-up to the festival has had a number of terrace jams, pop-up shows and pre-parties in which a few people got a glimpse of the magical jugalbandis on the cards. Ankur says it is amazing to hear how beautifully various instruments speak to each other and how diverse genres blend together.
The event is priced at Rs.1,500 per person per day and the tickets are available online or at the venue.
