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Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/03/2018
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Location
Alliance française du Bengale

Categories


Tinctures Duo Concert
Original music for piano and guitar
Aman Mahajan — piano | Nishad Pandey — guitar
featuring Shailpik Biswas – live visuals [www.shadowblink.com]

Date: Thursday, 8th March 2018
Time : 7:00 PM
Venue : Alliance française du Bengale,
57A Park Mansion, Park Street

Free & open to all.

Tinctures is a duo based out of India and Germany, featuring Aman Mahajan on piano and Nishad Pandey on guitar. Performing entirely original repertoire, their music is an organic confluence of jazz, Western and Indian classical music, and contemporary influences.

The Musicians


Guitarist: Nishad Pandey was born in India, but has spent extended periods of time living in Japan, UK, USA, and Australia. As a result of this nomadic existence, Nishad has been exposed to musical and cultural forms from across the globe. In addition to Tinctures, Nishad is a member of experimental world pop band Hatchlings, a free improvisation duo with Berlin-based violinist Roland Satterwhite, and Bengal to Bavaria, an acoustic trio in which folk repertoire from India and Germany provides a vehicle for contemporary improvisation.

Between 2011-17, Nishad was based in Kolkata, studying under renowned Indian Classical slide guitarist Pt. Debashish Bhattacharya, composing original music and performing widely. Nishad is now based in Berlin, where he works as a freelance guitarist, composer and teacher. He frequently collaborates with musicians from around the world. He also remotely curates events for Depot48, an independent music venue in Delhi.

Aman Mahajan is an Indian pianist, composer and improviser. His music is influenced by traditional and contemporary styles from around the world, and deeply inspired by a sense of unity and connection. Having worked with musicians of a plethora of nationalities and musical backgrounds, Mahajan is interested in improvisation as a tool with which to interact,explore and create.

A graduate of Berklee College of Music (Boston), Mahajan is presently based out of Bangalore, India. He also teaches music, both privately and as a faculty member at the Global Music Institute, Greater Noida!

The Music


World 1-1 conjures up images of classic video games such as Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Zelda, with each musical theme in the composition representing a different imaginary world, but with a narrative and thematic thread connecting the sections. The final section, ‘Tihailand’, takes the repeated rhythmic cadence known as a
tihai, and transports it to a world more reminiscent of Steve Reich than of Indian Classical music.

See You In Berlin is based on melodic hybridity – the first theme derived from the aesthetic of Indian music, and the second recalling the mood of French impressionism. The first melody is set to a number of different harmonic contexts, while the second focuses on a dynamic and rhythmically elastic interplay between the two instruments.

Patterns is an exploration of rhythmic grouping and manipulation based on a circular structure of rhythm and melody that is also palindromic in nature. The development of the parts witnesses the process of musical addition and reduction, the idea of the round, and of creating electronic sounds without the use of external effects, while the composition itself unfolds loosely in the form of a palindrome.

Uncharted explores the adventures of a young girl in a fantastical world, the melody representing the carefree and bold spirit of the protagonist as she navigates different terrain and different situations. Alice in Tinctures Wonderland.

Simple Machines takes the idea of the ‘simple machine’, the basic building blocks of all mechanized creations, and imagines these materials in an anthropomorphized way, reacting and conversing with each other. Here the ‘simple machines’ can be read as piano and guitar, but also, more generally, as the duo’s musical conversation and interaction.

Serpentine is a meandering, largely through-composed piece, that explores the idea of unison melodies played on piano and guitar, without recourse to their harmonic functions. The second section derives its particular sonic quality from the concept of hocketing, where it is not necessarily clear who is playing what. The final C major triad on piano sounds far removed from our abstract notion of what a major triad generally implies in terms of emotion. Here again, as with much of the album, simple musical devices are recontextualized, making them sound new and enigmatic.

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