Sound Reasons Festival
5 November 2014
“They teach you that there is bordering line to music but man there is no bordering line to art.”
Ish S. aptly chose Charlie Parker’s legendary quote to shed light on the creative processes behind the Sound Reasons record label and festival, the third edition of which will be running across 5 cities in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka till 10 November.
‘Art’ is a complicated word. Its immediate implication is visual i.e., we think of it as something we comprehend with our eyes. But this is where Ish disagrees - his fascination with all things aural led him to create the Sound Reasons record label in 2009 and festival in 2012. He’s also (unsurprisingly) a musician and electronic producer himself under the alias ‘edGeCut’ and two man imprint ‘difFuSed beats’.
Ish’s asserts that the products of Sound Reasons aren’t generally created for the purpose of superficial entertainment, and like any good artist, he’s “in the business of expression”. What this means is that Sound Reasons doesn’t have to conform to certain aesthetics and bypasses the boundaries music has to work within. It is uncompromisingly questioning and exploratory in nature, playing with and manipulating our ideas of sound in ways few have done before.
Sound installations, noise, radio art and experimental electro-acoustic music are among the forms that are included in the sonic arts. The Sound Reasons festival will feature installations by 7 artists (Timo Kahlen, Lars Lundehave Hansen, Thomas Peter, Marcus Maeder, Farah Mulla and Ish S) that aim to engage listening audiences by presenting sounds in unusual and unexpected forms. Each installation questions the foundations on which we understand noise – to give you an idea, Hansen’s installation called ‘Somewhere In Time’ will feature hand crafted turntables playing only Tyrolean music at the sluggish speed of 4RPM, creating a musical vacuum “that challenge time in a very radical way”. The installation by Delhi’s Farah Muller called ‘Aural Mirror’ immerses listeners in their own sounds by creating echoes the way facing mirrors react to objects and Marcus Maeder’ s incredible audio-visual sound sculpture - “Trees: Pinus sylvestris” measures acoustic emissions in plants, negotiating art and science to quite literally, render plant life audible.
More information about the events can be found here and on their Facebook page. Our purpose, however, is to give you an idea of what to expect from the live performances set to take place at Hauz Khas Social on 5 November.
Cologne based Senking and Swiss export Feldermelder will be playing electronica alongside edGeCut – Ish’s musical alias. edGeCut’s music is an amalgam of acoustic compositions (guitar, vocals, percussion and more) layered over experimental electronica. The video below sees the artist playing alongside Hans Koch on various (drum and bass heavy) sets, each punctuated by instrumentation on the electric guitar by Ish and Koch bass clarinet.
Jens Massel a.k.a. Senking began his musical education as a bass player in punk and indie bands during the early 90s – a fact that’s hard to believe once you’ve seen the video (embedded below) of the artist performing live at Raster-Noton Electric Campfire in Rome. The man clearly had some sort of epiphany after getting his hands on a lo-fi synthesizer back in 1995. Senking’s deep textural noises have a distinctly subterranean feel to them and normally feature heavy visualization – an aspect Senking has been giving more attention to lately. Inspired by the art and people that surround him, Senking’s performance is certainly worth a watch.
Manuel Oberholzer, alias Feldermelder, began his journey as a young teenager, producing on a simple Amiga 500. Now, his live performances have evolved to include a huge selection of analogue and controlled digital equipment, apparent in the visual below where he’s playing live at the Hula Honeys China and Japan tour last year. Expect some massive sounds from this producer. Deep, layered psychadelia, (quite different from what we’re used to hearing here in India) is what you can expect from the musician whose influences, unsurprisingly encompass a diverse range of artists including minimal music pioneer Steve Reich and groundbreaking electronic composer – Karlheinz Stockhausen.
This is a process any art or music enthusiast should check out – it’ll give listeners a chance to step out of their zones of comfort and explore an experimental side of sound which is slowly, but surely, trickling into the underground music scene even in India. Follow Sound Reasons on their website to be a part of this business of sonic expression.
**You can also catch Sound Reasons festival in Bangalore, Dhaka and Colombo. All information available here**