Bengaluru: Could music be a platform to push bigger messages? Roshan Netalkar, the man behind the “greenest music festival of India”, said Echoes of the Earth came about while pursuing answers to that question.
The seventh edition of the festival in Bengaluru – Echoes of the Earth is also held in Goa every year, usually in February – will be held on December 7 and 8 in the sprawling, nature-hugging campus of the Embassy International Riding School in the outskirts of Bengaluru.
“Over the years what we found out is that music is a perfect backdrop for deeper dialogues on sustainable living,” added Netalkar.
In six years, the festival managed to turn a group of like-minded people, who came in to listen to experimental music, into a community that takes ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ seriously, added Netalkar.
Nurturing this community is important too, said Netalkar, adding that they organise many off-shoot events, under the banner ‘The Greener Side’, in the months leading to the festival to keep the niche audience engaged throughout the year.
“This year, in Bengaluru, we organised a tree walk, a mush walk (to spot mushrooms) at Cubbon Park, herp walks (a guided walk to see reptiles and amphibians in their natural habitat) near Kanakapura, a spider walk at Puttenahalli Park, a rainwater harvesting workshop with Biome Environmental Trust as well as a workshop on nature journaling,” said Netalkar.
They collaborate with conservationists, nature educators and grassroot organisations to bring these events to people, added Netalkar.
For instance, for rainwater harvesting and nature journaling, Netalkar said, they had collaborated with Bangalore International Centre.
“Our mush walk at Cubbon Park even had a celebrity dropping in. Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, Gruhas and True Beacon, also posted about the Sunday morning walk, in which we spotted 20 kinds of fungi and mushroom species, on his various social media accounts,” said Netalkar.
The success of the venture meant The Greener Side events could be taken across India. “We have also organised a bio-luminescent walk in Goa, a dragonfly walk in Sunder Nursery in Delhi and a mangrove walk at Thane, to list out a few events outside of Bengaluru,” he added.
Netalkar said placing conservation and sustainability at the intersection of art and music has been a learning experience as much for him as for the tight-knit community that the festival has spawned.
“For instance, in the first few editions of the festival, we thought having paper cups was sustainable. But then we realised we needed to even drop paper cups if we are aiming for ‘no waste’,” said Netalkar.
He said making such decisions became easy only because the community that comes for the festival has fine-tuned itself to the concept of sustainable living.
“And this community is growing with every Echoes of the Earth that we organise. So, yes, we can say that music can be a platform to push bigger messages,” said Netalkar.
For Premik Jolly, a guitarist and composer, who is trying to free the electronic genre from being tagged exclusively as dance music – a perception that stuck thanks to all those EDM parties – a festival like Echoes of the Earth is a godsend.
“Music taste evolves with time. And a festival like Echoes of the Earth makes that evolution happen faster,” said Premik.
Premik, who started his career as a guitarist for a heavy metal band and slowly drifted towards what he calls the downtempo electronic music that could be defined as healing or meditative.
“I think EDM is overcooked and there is much more to electronic music. This is what we try to explore, and I think we are doing something right because I have been coming to Echoes of the Earth for six years now, and, thanks to such a receptive audience, we are pushing the boundaries of electronic music every year,” said Premik.
This year is even more special, added Premik.
“We ran a social media campaign to crowdsource sound samples of nature – bird songs, fluttering leaves, buzzing insects, gurgling rivers and what not. I have created audio sketches using some of those samples. Can’t wait to see how the crowd will react to it,” said Premik.
Giridhar Udupa of the Ghatam Udupa Collective, who will be performing for the first time at the festival, is also excited.
Born into a family of Carnatic musicians, and trained since he was four years old, 45-year-old Udupa said his father freed him from the rigid confines of the traditions of Carnatic music by letting him experiment with other genres.
“One of the best things about being a Carnatic percussionist is that it is very, very easy to adapt to other genres,” said Udupa.
His experimental journey led him to project Saagara, described as ‘interstellar folk’ globally, in which he collaborated with Polish Jazz musician Waclaw Zimpel.
Through Zimpel, Udupa said he met legendary electronic musician Sam Shackleton, who eventually produced his solo album, ‘My Name is Giridhar Udupa’.
Echoes of the Earth, hopes Udupa, is another step into the exciting world of experiments.
“We have put together an audio-visual experience for the audience involving Bharatnatyam and eight ghatam players, including my son Samarth Udupa, who is only eight years old. My setlist, you can say, will have all the experience I have had in the last three decades,” said Udupa. PTI JR ROH
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