Southbank Centre, London with Milapfest

Patri Satish Kumar

Milapfest's three day mini festival at London's Southbank Centre featured Alif Laila (sitar), Patri Satish Kumar (mridangam), H.N Bhaskar (Violin), Tarun Bhattacharya (santoor) and Kousic Sen (Tabla). 

I conducted some interviews and sound recordings from these world renowned artists. All of these artists have already contributed their sound material to the online educational resource site/sound archive - providing small sound clips representative of their unique playing styles.

With all these instruments I have been particularly attracted to the sounds of 'gamakas' (possible piece title...) - translated as 'ornamented notes' - on the sitar or veena these appears as vertical pulling gestures, while on the Indian violin this refers to the sliding between pitches. These oscillations also appear on the tabla and mridangam through subtle pitch bending. Gamakas appear to refer back to the vocal inflections and movements typical in Indian classical music.