The Score Magazine - Archive January 2015 issue! | Page 37

“It’s exciting that the event saw so much support this year, both
from members of the industry and from the general public,” Sonya
Mazumdar, CEO, EarthSync, told Score Magazine. “What we
witnessed was different wings of the global independent arts community
expressing a genuine desire to work together for a shared vision and a
dynamic future for India’s independent industries.”
In fact, as Mazumdar pointed out, XChange has already started to
yield concrete results. “What’s truly remarkable this year is that we
have already seen business opportunities being created and tangible
results manifesting themselves just in the span of those three days,”
she continues. “Artists have been booked by festival organisers, new
projects are being created, the media are releasing content about rather
niche and otherwise difficult to access musicians and films they were
exposed to at XChange – in a very real and immediate way, the initiative
is already realising its vision.”
This vision of IndiEarth XChange is to bring the independent
film, music and media sectors together in the same space, as a way
to create bridges between these three groups with the ultimate
purpose of providing sustainable infrastructures that will result in
business and tangible opportunities for artists and the independent
arts. “XChange has been a great chance for me to tap into the main
vein of some of the cultural movements here in India, in a very short
span of time,” says journalist/filmmaker Jackson Allers, “and
something concrete happened because of it! There’s a Syrian artist/exile
named Hello Psychaleppo who uses Arab heritage music incorporated
with contemporary electronic music production – I played one of his
videos during my presentation at XChange, and a Canadian festival
programmer in the audience heard it, was very impressed, and that very
same night, he booked him for a festival in 2015.”
The conference also operated as a sort of think tank session with
various panel discussions that were candid, sometimes heated and
thought provoking, yet always forward looking. Sessions included
Making The Space For Culture – with panelists Radhika Bordia
(NDTV), Nikhil Udupa (Pepsi MTV Indies), Ajay Prabhakar (Score
Magazine),Verhnon Ibrahim (Independent Media) – where media
heads addressed issues relating to creating space
in their publications for non-mainstream
content, receiving heated feedback and
debate from the audience. Connecting The
Dots: Regional Networks proposed various
ways that music markets could work
together and create networks that help
both artists and their related businesses –
with speakers Romuald Requena (Sakifo
Festival), Sonya Mazumdar (IndiEarth
XChange), Gerald Seligman (Borneo
World Music Expo) and Min Kim
(Asia Pacific Music Meeting),
while Sound Lab 2014 – in
association with Border
Movement and the Goethe
Institute – showcased the
sounds of cutting edge new
producers who had been under
the mentorship of producers
Justus Köhncke and Cee
from Germany. The session
Waves That Changed Our
World featured speakers
Sastry Karra, Yotam
Agam, Paul Jacob,
Harold Monfils,
Patrick Sebag,
B. Hemanathan,
Arturo Calvete,
Mahesh
Vinayakram,
and Sonya
Mazumdar
sharing their vivid stories and memories of the making of Laya
Project – an inspiring music documentary that documents the
regional folk music traditions of the different communities that were
hit by the tsunami of 2004.
The music showcase performances this year were varied and vibrant,
bringing together artists from different corners of the world including
Reunion Island, Germany, Kuwait, Israel, Lebanon, Australia,
France, India, and more – a melting pot of culture, music, and
art. Day 1 saw acts like The Ganesh Talkies from Kolkata with
an energetic live show that blended elements of Bollywood kitsch
with alternative rock, played to a re ceptive and excited audience,
and Bangalore based rock act Parvaaz – blending blues, rock and
psychedelia with Urdu and Kashmiri lyrics. Providing a unique audio
visual experience was Zahed Sultan from Kuwait, an alternative/
electronic multimedia artist and producer, while musician/composer
Vivek Rajagopalan from India created a stage space where various
genres – including Hindustani, Carnatic, jazz and folk – seamlessly
blended.
Day 2’s showcases featured acts like the renowned Rajasthani Kutle
Khan Project playing to a packed auditorium with his invigoratingly
soulful folk sounds; an extraordinary visual experience portrayed
in Draupadi – Flamenco & Kathakali - a Spanish - Indian musical
dance collaboration featuring flamenco dancer Bettina Castaño-
Sulzer; Maya Kamaty from Reunion Island who left her audience
spellbound with a unique cocktail of Maloya blues music blended
with French and Indian influences; and Yogev Haruvi from Israel
with a captivating, entrancing one man didgeridoo and drum show.
Until We Last from Bangalore created emotive landscapes of sound
with their post rock instrumental act, while Manjari Chaturvedi
from Lucknow showcased an art form unique to herself – Sufi Kathak
– bringing together the subtle beauty of Sufi poetry with Indian
classical dance forms. In between performances, traditional folk
troupes from Tamil Nadu showcased their vibrant music and dance
with unique art forms like puli vesam (tiger dance) and a diverse
repertoire of traditional folk instruments.
Day 3 highlights included The Zenpad Experience, featuring Yotam
Agam, Patrick Sebag and Yoav Rosenthal gathered in the center
of the performance space surrounded by their audience, creating
vivid soundscapes on Ableton Live and inviting other artists and
collaborators to participate; the Pepsi MTV Indie’s pick of XChange
Madboy/Mink with a sweat inducing up tempo set at the Leather
Bar; Donn Bhat + Passenger Revelator presenting a fascinating
experimental electronica live act; and Chennai’s Grey Shack with a
generous dose of hard rock.
Every corner of The Park Chennai resonated and pulsated with the
beat of music. “Chennai has such a rich and vibrant musical landscape,
but in terms of providing spaces where independent artists can express
themselves – the city still has a very long way to go,” says Yotam Agam
of EarthSync, and co-organiser of XChange. “Initiatives like IndiEarth
XChange are trying to address and change this by providing an open
space where artists can come together and share pieces of themselves,
where Chennai audiences also have opportunity to be experience new
alternative sounds and inspiring artists from around the world.”
The film screenings were also packed out to full capacity, with
directors like Q (Nabarun), Gitanjali Rao (True Love Story),
and Simon Broughton (Sufi Soul) all present during their films to
engage in Q & A’s with the audience immediately after. The many
workshops conducted at XChange were varied and informative,
and included an Ableton Live workshop with German multi-
instrumentalist/producer Madeleine Bloom, a film workshop
with Docedge Kolkata’s Nilotpal Majumdar, Samira Bangara’s
workshop They Say You Can Monetise Content Digitally –
Really?, and Manojna Yeluri’s workshop DIY Law For Musicians
and Filmmakers. As was evident from this past edition, IndiEarth
XChange is a forum unique to India that offers a space for independent
artists to express themselves, a meeting point for global individuals of
the independent arts industries, a convergence of creative sectors, and
a melting pot for business growth.
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