Tansen Music Festival

The Tansen Music Festival's stage in Gwalior was set at the center of a lake, with a small area in front for people to sit and watch, and more seating on the sides of the lake. The artists played on a slightly elevated platform, all sitting on the floor.

Every performance began with the drone of the tempuras, and during the whole festival, the air was thick with this heavy, hypnotising sound that seemed like something from outer space. Most vocalists sang in the dhrupad style, with a backdrop of tempura, drums and one other instrument, and mostly sang sounds or notes rather than words.

Savita Devi, a famous classical singer performed the first night, but this was my first time really listening to Indian classical music, and much of it sounded out of tune/too high pitched/annoying.

The most amazing performance of the festival was, for me, Venkatesh. His chemistry with the tabla player and 3 other musicians was incredible, all five of them nodding and smiling and communicating throughout the show. The audience too was swept in, some people gasping or cheering at certain climatic points of the performance. Venkatesh used his hands and body to channel his voice, and often closed his eyes, seemingly in deep meditation. It seemed to me much of the singing was improvised, but then every musician would come in at the perfect moment and a repetitive melody would emerge. It was really mesmerising, unlike anything I've ever seen or heard. He played 3 "songs" each about 10-15 minutes long.

The next performer was in even more of a trance, and his vocal improvisations were sometimes too strange to grasp hold of. One sound he crafted was a very deep bass, similar to a burping sound or the sub bass notes in dubstep. He could go in and out of these as he pleased and his ability to use his voice as an instrument was impressive.

Main instruments I saw:

Tabla: twin drums, capable of producing many sounds, one of them a deep "boiing", very cool.

Saringi: Like a violin but even sadder sounding.

Harmonium: Looks like an accordion but played on the ground, sounds a lot like a jazz organ.

Western Violin: Played in Indian manner style, very interesting.

The whole event was pretty magical and was a great introduction to Indian classical music. It's easy to hear the spiritual, and psychedelic element which influenced the Beatles and others in the 60s. It also uses a different system to our do re mi, which is apparently more complicated, so I'm keen to find out more. I've filmed quite a few performances and hopefully will create a film showcasing some of these sounds.