Dr Floy (Paris, France) - Sumathi (Bangalore, India)
Bass, Electronics and Hindustani classical vocals
Around texts and poems of Indian contemporary authors, activists and members of the Hijra community or visiting the Indian tradition of sufi poetry, DrFloy (bass player and electroacoustic composer), and Sumathi (hindustani classical vocals, composer) have developed a musical conversation for the last five years, sharing and experimenting around their musical practices: ragas, electronic compositions, instrument, voice and soundscapes.
“A Stream of Love” ... beyond genders, cultures and continents, love is a transe ... the musical vibration.
After a tour in Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai in 2005, the two artists are now presenting a musical performance with a serie of new pieces composed during the residence in India “Villa Medicis Hors les murs“ of DrFloy in 2009.
The new show was premiered in Alliance francaise of Pondichery in February 2009. The CD album “A stream of love“ recorded in India , will be mixed in Berlin in May 2009 and released in September 2009.
THE ARTISTS
Floy Krouchi aka DrFloy, a french sound artist, bass guitar player and electronic composer and performer, involved in the electronic and experimental music scene and in the female collective Mafucage, has been performing since 1994 in France, UK, US, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Tchequia, Russia, China and India.
She produces and releases sound art and pieces for diverse supports in various art forms such as CDs, vinyl EPS, Internet web art, videos, installations of her own projects, and collaborates with various artists, collectives and groups in Europe and India.
Founder of the organization “Le Cri du Silence“, (The Cry of Silence), women arts and technologies, dedicated to producing, training and promoting female musicians in the field of electronics.
She studied electroacoustic composition in the conservatory in Paris in the class of Gino Favotti, as well as Jazz Improvisation with David Patrois. She is also initiated to Indian ragas with Pandit Hindraj Divekar, one rudra veena master living in Pune.
Sumathi, as student of Hindustani classical vocal music, has been learning music for 20 years under late Pandit Ramarao Naik, Pandit D.S. Garud, Pandit Yaeshwant Buva Joshi, and Smt Lalit Rao.
She started performing Hindustani classical vocal at the age of 12, and has performed in prestigious festivals, like Savai Gandarwa festival at Hubli, Flights of Fantasy Ganjam Nagappa festival at Bangalore, Devanandam Ubhayakar youth festival…
She is now mostly involved in experimental programs. She is also a music composer working for documentary films and theatre.
In 2005 DR FLOY and SUMATHI worked on SAKHIRI, an electro-acoustic
multimedia performance crossing genders.A musical creation built out of a poetic research exploring gender issues, human rights
andsexual minorities’ rights, making space for our multiple voices; exploring
pain, joy, love and celebrating our lives through multimedia artistic
expression.5 shows of
“Sakhi Ri” were presented at the Alliances françaises of Bangalore, Pune, and
Bombay, India, in March-April 2005. The performance toured along with the
involved artists and participants to the workshops.
An interaction between
electric, electronic, and traditional music...Electronic treatments, beats,
experimental soundscapes , Hindustani classical alaaps and ragas, sculpting
themes and emotions, and building ,around an intimate fluid relation between
sound compositions and video art, intricate narratives dealing with the
particularity of the hijra context, dissonance and gender de/construction as
well as universal emotions.
The show
includes a live performance of audio and video pieces.
After
collecting material through various meetings and workshops with members of the
Hijra community (traditional transexual community of India) and gender variants
individuals for the time of a residency in Bangalore, the artists present
different music compositions where live electronics treat and transfigure the
collected sources, testimonies and poems, while poetry is performed and sung,
interacting with video.
How can
experimental soundscapes, treatments and classical vocals deal together?
How can music,
poetry, and video reveal, attract or repel each other?
What kind of
meaning or sensations appear through?
How is gender
constructed by artists, art, music, electronics, visuals, poetry, images, by
people,
by mainstream
people?
What about
people who transgress the borders?
Has Creation to
do with creating one’s own life, one’s own gender?
What creative
potential lies in being “in the margins”?
