UK-based sarod virtuoso Soumik Datta, who was once held up at Customs on suspicion of smuggling something in his instrument, tells us how he’s woven the immigrant experience and global polarisation into his new tour, Travellers
Soumik Datta in rehearsal ahead of his “Travellers” workshop, which premieres at G5A, Mahalaxmi, this weekend. Pic/Satej Shinde
The world is polarised and Soumik Datta wants to document it through his music. The British Asian artiste, has come back to the city for his second residency with G5a at Mahalaxmi this week.
Datta is not just a sarod player but also a composer, and wants to make music an experience and not just “background activity”, he opines. The show that was presented on Friday and Saturday was the culmination of a five-day residency, but it is an experiment that only those with a palate for something unusual should
chew on.
The show, named Travellers, is about displacement, the immigrant experience and the polarisation that has been seen around the world right from the United Kingdom, Gaza and the United States. “The show is the six of us sitting on the stage with our respective instruments, but we are experimenting with sound design as well. So we weave in a pre-recorded audio to transport the audience into the shoes of someone being interrogated at the customs office or someone who is at an American border crossing, so the experience of being detained question feels visceral for the audience,” he says. Datta’s lived experience as a minority in Britain reflects as he brings in quotes from artists like Bob Dylan, and Robert Oppenheimer’s famous lines from the Bhagavad Gita, “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. Tanks and gunfire feature as a nod to Gaza. “The show is a bit about the experience, it does not have a typical beginning or an end either and is supposed to be beyond the usual concerts etc,” he adds.
Soumik Datta is a sarod player and composer who is presenting a workshop about migration and displacement. Pic/Satej Shinde
The other artiste who will help Datta weave in and out the experience will be Sayee Rakshith on the violin, Sumesh Narayanan on mridangam, Debjit Patitundi on the tabla, Nina Harries on bass, and Hrith Dey on percussion.
With the recent Los Angeles riots over the stringent new immigration laws, Datta’s workshop is even more timely. “I understand the point of view more as an immigrant. My sarod was almost broken at Customs because they thought I was hiding something in it. With what is happening in the US and the extreme polarisation of the world I feel this is something we must address because no one has remained unaffected by these events,” he says.
Datta is holding a workshop today with 15 young artistes from Pune and Mumbai in which they will have sessions, seminars on how to take the music beyond the usual and make it more experiential. “Unlike movies or songs, it is difficult to convey a message in music alone, which is why we need to find different and unique ways to say what we need to with clarity,” says Datta.
The composer has a more academic approach to the workshop so that the show is smooth and doesn’t lack cohesion, especially when combining ragas with western music, “One raga, when [performed] against a violinist, sounds botched and when not done well the whole experience is not a pleasant one for the audience. Which is why we are extremely particular about our arrangements and everything is well thought out,” he adds.
When we ask what he feels is one of the biggest deterrents in his industry today, Datta quickly says, “Lack of a music education.” “People right now might go to a show and their takeaways are something along the lines of the ‘lights were great’, or ‘the costume was grand’, but we need the people who come to understand that why what was played tugged at what heartstring, and why did you tear up at a certain part of the show,” he adds.
Datta plans to do another collaboration with the G5a because he is “loving” the experience of working with Indian artiste.
As we come to the end of our conversation, we get a feeling that Datta seems to be an artiste who has the soul of a wanderer — looking for answers that we all are searching for.
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