As we wait in the auditorium for the experimental musician Eryck Abecassis, the artist is found busy getting ready for his concert. We also observe an interesting interaction between the French artist and his Indian crew. Eryck, acclaimed for his multimedia/electronic compositions was in the city for a concert, finally finishes his rehearsals and sits down for a chat.
"India isn't new for me," he exclaims, "I was here in 1989 with a theatre company for which I was composing and also came for concerts as musician afterwards. Recently I received a grant to compose a musical, a tragedy based in the backdrop of ship recycling yards in India." Eryck is travelling to different places for this musical, sort of a multimedia opera; depicting the hardships of life, and 'noise' is the major type of music he's using. "By noise I not only mean the noise around us," he explains, "Noise is also what I've created with my technology and tools. This noise isn't characteristically the one that hurts your ears. It's used as a metaphor in the tale I am telling."
"There's no such mystic inspiration that comes from outside," Eryck comes up with a surprisingly straight forward answer to whether the surroundings inspire him or not; he adds, "It's my work that inspires me, I spend each day making music and this daily journey is my source of inspiration. It all comes from within." Unlike many traditional musicians, who don't credit technology much, Eryck is the one taking it as a boon. Looking very comfortable with his gadgets, softwares and equipments; he says, "I work with conventional instruments and technology both, it's a synchronization of sorts. Why can't we embrace the fact that the new technologies are very exciting and are capable of modifying music to a great extent? Just like an artist makes music with his instruments, I do it with the help of technology. In fact, I can create several new instruments with my tools." But he also shares that technology will never become our limitation. "Music for me is about communicating with others and relating yourself with everyone. Even if technology disappears, we'll find our way to reach out to people."
Eric says music industry is growing like never before, but the government around the world aren't supporting it enough. "Our authorities are all for financial strengthening instead of cultural development. They don't support fields like music as much as they should. These days, we often tend to forget that culture can solve more problems than money. It's only culture that can build bridges while money and power only create disputes and differences."
Ask him about the the multimedia/ technological revolution that is about to take charge of the music industry, and he does not seem to be bothered about it. "Who cares about the future of the industry? I am busy with the present, with my ideas, with what I have right now; I am busy enjoying it."
Source: The Times of India. Nidhin M Patel. 21 February 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment