23 April 2011 The Adventures of Prince Achmed took me back to my first memories of fairytales … bedtime stories that coated morals like ‘all’s well that ends well’ in a gloss of bright lights and pretty colours. I was as easily seduced then as I am now … more than willing to buy into [...]
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19 April 2011 No amount of YouTubing could’ve prepared me for the ultimate experience of Susheela Raman … raw, gutteral, earth mother, inferno … a night to remember at the QEH … . Open wide, split belly womb burst room birth frees a gutful echo, round vowels embody woman grieving, heaving song through landscapes immersed [...]
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Susheela Raman Susheela Raman has been brought up between two cultures which is reflected in her South Indian classical (Carnatic) music sensibility against the sounds of funk, jazz, soul and pop. She has been mysteriously quiet since her experimental versions of western rock songs four years ago, but she releases an album next month, and [...]
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Last night Alchemy Artist in Residence Arun Ghosh presented a cine-concert. It was original contemporary soundtrack to The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), the oldest surviving feature length animation in cinema’s history. Arun is well known for his band, in which his clarinet leads a precession of drums, saxophone, percussion and voice. The score for [...]
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This is a video of the interview and tech run of Mumbai Jazz a couple hours before the performance on 18th April as part of the Alchemy Festival. Charlotte and I interviewed two of the musicians Larry Coryell and Rajesh Rajbhatt. Puja Mistry, Alchemist
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Could you please introduce yourself for the readers of the blog. Hi, my name is Soumik Datta and I am an artist in residence here for Alchemy Festival 2011. I’m having a great time and I’ve been here all week. I’ve done my show and now I’m working with Gauriji on her show. We’ve heard [...]
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Caligraphy in Motion was Alchemy Festival’s first fashion event. Kinetic Calligraphy, conceived by Meera and Muzaffar Ali, is an innovative way of wearing Sufi script. Over the last 21 years, they have revived the traditional craft of the Kotwara region in North India, the historical and cultural centre which inspired the location for Muzaffar Ali’s [...]
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The Alchemy Festival began on Friday, with some fantastic music, dance, debate and fashion. Over the 11 days of the festival there’ll be a brilliant group of Alchemists seeing and blogging about Alchemy. They are writers, dancers, photographers and artists from around the UK, India & South Asia. So here they are! Charlotte Emily is [...]
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Raghu Dixit and his band have started Alchemy 2011 on a great start. Raghu collaborated with Bellowhead and Gauri Sharma Tripathi and they all came up with many amazing songs on 15th April at the Queen Elizabeth Hall which usually is packed. Behind every song of Raghu’s there is story which applies to all humans. [...]
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Meera Ali kicked off the inauguration of Alchemy with Calligraphy In Motion. Throughout the last 21 years Meera and Muzaffar Ali have immersed themselves with different aspects of Sufism and have found innovative ways of reviving the traditional craft of the Kotwara region in North India. This historical and cultural hub is what spurred Muzaffar [...]
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