Mone Rekho. To remember – or, more accurately, ‘to hold in your heart’.
Soumik Datta’s guru, Buddhadev das Gupta, his sarod teacher and much loved ‘grandfather’ died five years ago. Mone Rekho is Soumik’s tribute to his teacher. A tribute also to the many thousands of hours he spent ‘repeating small phrases’ on his sarod – ‘repeated twice exactly’ – so that he could take his place in a long line of sarod players stretching back to Murad Ali Khan in the 1830s. It was Murad Ali Khan who added the steel plate to the wooden lute to create the unique sound and the gliding note of the sarod – and then forged new melodies – such as this…
The show includes a lot of wonderful music on both sarod and tabla woven around interactive audiovisual memories. These take us through some of the disciplines of classical Indian music, the streets of Kolkata as Soumik rushes to his sarod lessons, into a care home where residents’ memories are fragmented and scattered, to his last visit to his guru and the shared memory of payesh, their favourite Bengali custard made with raisins – ‘delicious’.
Soumik’s tabla accompanist is Gurdain Singh Rayatt who you will see on this clip. As with most tabla players, Gurdain Singh Rayatt’s hands seem to have a life of their own – performing frenetic dances on the taut skins of their drums while their owners remain calm and aloof, apparently detached from the action.
Memory haunts the music: the instruments themselves, the guru’s teaching, the echoing patterns of Indian music which so often seems to have no beginning and no end – ‘the departure is the destination point’. The very moment that you think it has ended, it takes off in an entirely new direction. As does Soumik’s show. Expecting a final raga he invites you instead to scan a QR code to record your memory of the last hour – and be rewarded with a final number.
Mono Rekho is one of 3 shows created between 2023 and 2026 as part of our Arts Council NPO. One of these shows (the next one Bordelands) is created with the Philharmonia as part Soumik’s year’s residency with the Philharmonia.
Meanwhile his Green Room Project looks to bring together a small group of refugee and migrant artists who will have the chance to collaborate and develop their creative potential. I plan to bring you more on this very soon.
For more check in to Soumik Datta Arts or follow him on Instagram.
Meanwhile – a final short clip in which we, the audience, are pulled in to form part of the collective memory.
Don’t forget……
This Sunday, 26th at 12 noon – Shirley and and Peter’s jam session at 10a South Grove for a glass of Bucks Fizz and some cool jazz? You can book here – or pay on the door – only £15
And then……
Our oud concert at 6pm on December 1st with Rihab Azar – to launch Khulood da’mi’s exhibition? You can book here – £15 to include wine and snacks – or pay on the door.
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