Magnetic Fields Festival’s residency Fieldlines is where Indigenous Indian sounds converge with contemporary music with new approaches to creative collaboration and expression. This year, it brings together deep-drawing world-touring selector and system-building soundman behind some of London’s most important dances, V.I.V.E.K with Barmer’s Manganiyar artists including vocalist Bhanwari Devi with her son Krishna Kumar accompanying her on the harmonium, Alser Khan on the saranda, Kambhra Khan on murli and alghoza, Kutla Khan on dholak and harmonium, and brother-duo of Mahmud and Yusuf Khan on bhapang.
V.I.V.E.K’s crucial brew of bass styles encompassing everything from heavyweight bass hypnosis to flighty, steppy garage hybrids via sweet dub soul and all-out low-end pressure will supplement the mystical tales of the Manganiyar artists, creating stories of love and history with the power of bass.
The artists will live and work together in the lead-up to the festival to explore new frontiers in creative collaboration and expression over 10 days of residency at the picturesque Badal Mahal of Alsisar Palace. Both traditions, in their own ways, evoke a sense of deep emotionality and immersive atmospheres. As the traditional and contemporary artists come together to create music and their performances together, they will find common ground in their shared passion for creating immersive sonic journeys through music which they present through open-studio jam sessions and a performance on the festival’s South Stage.
With cultural mediation facilitated by social-work-through-arts NGO Rest of My Family, the collective journey with Fieldlines 2024 as part of Magnetic Fields promises to inspire not only the artists themselves but also the audiences who will witness the fusion of these distinct vibrant musical worlds.
Fieldlines is an inter-traditional and inter-generational musical collaboration, that started as part of Magnetic Fields Festival 2019 in collaboration with Gebrüder Teichmann and their label Noland with support from Goethe-Institut's Coproduction Fund grant.
