RIYAAZ #1
Kharaj in Gunkali, Dawn.
We invite you to dwell within the dense and uneven overlay of voice, hum and unspoken guttural premonitions. The voice is body — let us hold onto this simple truth. In the first of a weekly sonic offering, vocalist and musician Hania Luthufi initiates Kharaj practice in the morning raga Gunkali. Starting from the subliminal refrains of awakening to slow rumbles of deep sub terrains. She lifts into weightier contours of melody, from Mandra Saptak to Ati Mandra Saptak (low to lower octave).
RIYAAZ #2
Aarohan-Avarohan in Gunkali, Dawn.
In this practice session, Vocalist and musician Hania Luthufi offers another mood in Gunkali. With the ascent and descent of scale (Aarohan-Avarohan) there is a sense of topography, as if the lyrical gradient is walking from wetland toward low hills. This time, Gunkali becomes an offer in endurance over a “flat” time — when even the transition in year might feel as though it was dragging its feet. As she converses with the metronome, imagine the onset of evening rain, a mother’s open laughter, then a hidden forest trail.
RIYAAZ #3
Trumpet Long Tones in Megh, Rain.
Opening with trumpet notes in pentatonic raga Megh, Hania Luthufi's third Riyaaz session opens like a premonition - the restlessness of thunder, rumors on the street, hushed conversation among strangers. Low hanging grey clouds are evoked through the raga's dominant notes against a bowed piano drone by accompanying Delhi-based musician Rohit Gupta. Will the heat give way to another downpour? the ancient melodic structure of Megh has long accompanied the onset of monsoon, wet earth and renewal.
RIYAAZ #4
Improvisations on Ektaal, Megh, Rain.
In this concluding offering, Hania Luthufi extends her circle of collaborators. Reinterpreting the 12-beat tabla cycle Ektaal in percussive tones is experimental musician Sum Suraweera. It seems as if a parade is taking over barren streets, the winds twisting us into directions of fantasy and lightness. Delhi based pianist trumpeter and synth musician Rohit Gupta's drone of rain and brass seems to defy gravity, altogether creating the rising and subsiding of a clamour representing downpour, thunder and lightening.
