Author: Debashis Sinha

Debashis Sinha's creative output spans a broad range of genres and media, from solo audiovisual performance projects and percussion on the concert stage to the interior spaces between 2 headphones.  
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The Bell Garden / Berlin

my new solo live performance project, the bell garden, had its debut here in toronto tonight as part of musideum‘s live performance series, terrain.  the bell garden is a new series of performances using harmonium and percussion objects, along some of the archived field recordings with which i often work.  it is an extension of the shruti performances, more “musical” but still exploring a contemplative and personal sound world.

the first performance, rough edges and all, is available here for download.  i would suggest downloading the file for higher quality listening.

i am off to germany to visit family, and finally, finally record with my good friend and colleague robert lippok, in the former east berlin radio studios.  i am tremendously excited to be making music with robert, and even more excited to be doing it in a building so steeped in world history (and intrigue).  watch this space for news on the upcoming release.

happy holidays.

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nuit blanche 2009

a time lapse film of the peggy baker dance project nuit blanche performance is up, thanks to filmmaker midi ondera, here.

many thanks to peggy, the dancers, meredith potter, ben grossman and phil strong for all their hard work.

incidentally, confluence, the triptych of works that i have spoken about earlier, will be premiered in toronto feb 24-28 2010.  the music is coming along nicely and the final show will be about an hour long.

hope to see you there.

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listen in spanish

a big thank you to miguel alvarez fernandez for making a radio feature on me to introduce listeners to my work before the broadcast of “kailash”.

i met miguel while in alicante to present  “kailash”, which was commissioned by Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporanea /Radio Clasicá/RNE (Spanish National Radio)—the prize i wrote about a few posts back.  everyone there was really wonderful and excited about making my work sound the best it could.

please enjoy.

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a good time was had by all

back from belfast, and what a trip!  the friendliness of the irish is by no means exaggerated.

had a great set @ an excellent venue, the black box, highly recommended if you are looking for a place to play.  the ISEA conference was quite an experience—never been to an academic conference before, and some of the seminars were of a different focus than the performative or process-oriented kind of explorations i usually seem to expose myself to.  however, i did see some good performances, even though the focus was on academia everyone made it out to the shows at night.  in particular i am very pleased to have finally met my now good friend yasuhiro morinaga, who had a great performance during the day the first day i got there.  we are on track for a performance in toronto for the new adventures in sound art festival soundplay.

there are pics of the set on my site thanks to colin, who was the volunteer in charge of the night.  only a few though—it was, after all pretty dark.

hitting the ground running, now.  kailash comes up at the end of the year, and the nuit blanche project with peggy baker is on tap as well—more on that later, and see previous posts here for links.

good night, and see you at a show soon….

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belfast

well, here i am.  belfast is a lovely city.  the weather is nuts.  the people are so friendly, and i could listen to them talk all day.

finally, after many months of emails, met my (now) good friend yasuhiro morinaga, who did a beautiful set of field recording performance yesterday.  saw some interesting pieces, and a wonderful peformance by d-fuse last night.  looking forward to my set this evening @ black box:

black box (@ soundcheck)

tonight’s performance is the Big Event here @ ISEA today, so i am very excited.  now, if we can only find a step-down transformer…..

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belfast kommt

a few more sleeps until i go to ISEA 2009.  i will, as i have mentioned, be presenting a new video, the white dog, and will be performing my shruti audiovisual project on aug 27 around 9pm.  please drop by if you get a chance—coincidentally my friends from autorickshaw will be in belfast at the same time.  expect a big toronto reunion at the nearest pub afterwards—i haven’t seen any of them in over a year.

soon after returning, i will be doing the harmonium audiovisual project at the toronto portion of the international indian electronica festival.  september 4 is the date, and rolly’s garage is the place.  9pm start, cover tba (check the website).  i look forward to doing this project here in toronto.  some new surprises are in store for this performance, including the excellent reading of text i wrote, courtesy of berlin electronica star robert lippok, who incidentally has a great voice.

sept 19 has my visual work as part of the next bird project concert.  this ensemble of flutes, voice, piano, poetry, electroacoustic sound and video is still going strong, and we are well into our season.  unfortunately i won’t be there to do live visuals, as i will be on a plane to spain to present my new work kailash, the winner of the CDMC/Ars Sonora prize.  the piece will be premiered at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Alicante, and i am really thrilled to be going there to present.

finally, peggy baker and i will be presenting the dance/audiovisual installation project move @ nuit blanche toronto on october 3rd (7pm to sunrise).  24 dancers and a great band—myself, ben grossman, and phil strong.

hope to see you there.  somewhere.

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radio/CD

the spanish radio piece i spoke about in an earlier post is nearing completion.  my liason for the project is miguel alvarez fernandez, who translated the text i wrote into spanish and recorded the fantastic reading of it by radio clasicá personality gregorio parra.  things sound sooooo much better in spanish.

i am also in the happy position of having 2 options for releasing the new CD.  discussions are ongoing, but expect a late 2009 release as CD and on bandcamp.

i will be in residence as peggy baker’s accompanist this summer for various classes at the national ballet school, as well as for her yearly teacher’s seminar.  playing the drums will be nice—it always is with the inimitable ms. baker.

not to mention the little hurricane that is our daughter leena.

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barely

able to stay awake, let alone do any  work.  just returned from india, with our new daughter leena.  as of this writing we have been  home 72 hours.

bliss.

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more international: spanish national radio

just found out i am the winner of the XVI radio creation works contest, administered by radio clasica (spanish national radio) and ars sonora.  this is a major prize, and i am really honoured and very flattered to have been chosen.  i will be creating  a new long form radio piece called “kailash”.  the work will be debuted at the international festival of contemporary music of alicante in late sept 2009.

thanks to the jury and to senor miguel alvarez-fernandez for awarding me such a high honour.