weimerhead

The moment I entered the EMU space last Thursday I was helplessly enchanted by the wonderful sound of Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh’s Sitar (like a guitar except you sit to play it). This man’s wonderful instrument really was a testament to the fact that there are just so many different types of sound out there. At one stage near when I first walked in I think the doctor looked at me and smiled; I must have been sitting there grinning like a schoolgirl. Just such a truly beautiful sound.

His playing ability was obviously very advanced, I would probably gained a lot more from the workshop if I were able to understand more of what he said. Much was mentioned about Indian music and form, and unfortunately I really did not understand much of what he said! However, it is quite refreshing to hear people from other countries speak English, especially to hear words that you are familiar with, used in contexts that you are not.

Toward the end of the workshop it once again came time for the guest to rock it out with one of the improvisation groups. During this concert I was particularly impressed with the performance Vinny. He played a sort of whiney ambience sound from his laptop and then went ahead and played the tabla. Prehaps his own Indian heritage assisted him understand the playing style of the doctor, or perhaps his own skill with improvisation allowed him to preform quite comfortably and effectively. Most likely both of these things. The remainder of the group contained Tyrell, Luke, Seb, Daniel and Poppy. Tyrell was quite good, he was able to listen to the others and know when to enter with his old-school synthesizer. The fact that he used a tone that sounded like it would suit an Atari video game, he did well to fit in with the natural sounds of the Sitar and Tabla. Luke and Seb were again able to choose when to play and when no to. However, I think if given the chance to perform with the group again they might have added a lot more of their dirty tones and not act as such a slave to the Tabla and Sitar. Daniel played some weird noise maker thing and among all the sound I am not too sure what sounds he made and which he did not, but he certainly did not seem to detract from the overall aesthetic. Finally Poppy used her voice to produce both long droning howls and short, percussive shrieks. I thought that at one stage she might of broken into one of her infamous ‘spoken word’ recitals and start preaching anti-Immigration propaganda, but alas, she choose to stick safe with ‘non-English.’

Bibliography
Sardeshmukh, Chandrakant. “Improvisation Technique.” Workshop presented in EMU Space, 5th floor Schulz building, University of Adelaide. 14/09/2006