‘Many Moons’ by Bindhumalini inhabited the liminal spaces between sound and music, cognitive understanding and intuitive knowing. The layered musical experience offered at Courtyard Koota, Bengaluru, during their sixth anniversary celebrations, invited audiences to travel softly through shape-shifting soundscapes, challenging preconceived notions about what constitutes music. Beginning with a meditative immersion into a sound sculpture or musical installation, the programme led the audience towards a new space of listening to and thinking about music in its second part, which was somewhat like a concert but not quite.
The journey commenced from silence to a captivating interplay of sounds and musical question marks, evolving into lyric-free melodies, tune tributes, and formal compositions. ‘Many Moons’ treated audiences to a heart-to-heart between disparate entities in music-making, devoid of dissonance. It posed intriguing questions: Does sound need to be arranged for music to emerge? How does the heart instinctively perceive oneness in harmony built from notes of different registers? These were some of the contemplations that surfaced during the event.
The initial offerings of the concert were untethered by words, anchored lightly in ancient knowledge structures. Singers Bindhumalini and Gurupriya Atreya skillfully employed body rhythms and humming, serving music laden with ta-ra-ra-ras and la-la-la-las. Classical guitarist Abhaydev Praful added vibrant strumming, sometimes singing, sometimes creating sound. In a beautiful composition, ‘My Sweet Golden Moon,’ a tribute to Illayaraaja’s ‘Yen Iniya Ponn Nilave,’ the intimate connection between music and memories was laid bare. ‘Rain and Smoke’ was another energetic piece continuing in the style of swara-strings. ‘Auto-tune’ intriguingly was created in an autorickshaw, not as a lofty contemplation on the relationship between music and spontaneity.
Bindhumalini, Gurupriya Atreya, and Abhaydev Praful | Photo Credit: Sumukh Bharadwaj
These pieces defied classification yet resonated with multiple musical genres including jazz, classical music, and film music. They showcased the human voice’s potential as a musical instrument, possibly even an extension of the human mind when freed from its cerebral duties. The music was playful, often eschewing language, and opening paths for the audience to derive its own meaning of melody, rhythm, and the connections—or lack thereof—between them.
The next segment evoked familiarity: a song of lament, a lullaby, and a timeless classical composition, all set to the Carnatic raga Bhairavi.
. While the first two pieces were presented in fragments, the magnificent ‘Kamakshi’ emerged as the grand finale, performed in its entirety. Despite the audience being attuned to the explorative nature of the concert by then, the grandeur of ‘Kamakshi’ was so captivating that any initial resistance quickly dissolved. Ultimately, the concert delivered on its promise of leaving loose ends untied, a perfectly fitting conclusion.
Bindhumalini marvels at the “magic, hiding in plain sight,” referring to an “underlying unity of notes” observed in what is called Natabhairavi in Carnatic music, Asavari in Hindustani music, and the Natural Minor scale in Western music. Her exploration of cross-cultural approaches to this scale during research for another composition led to further delving into Natabhairavi’s offshoots and worldwide versions, giving birth to ‘Many Moons’. She envisioned the show as a warm, shared experience rather than a mere display of the raga’s range and manifestations.
The intention behind sharing research phase playlists and voice recordings from other musicians on their relationship with the scale was to invite audiences into the process. These were played outside the venue before and after the show. Bindhumalini also invited the audience to absorb “the study material” that had been created and transformed into the musical installation, a crucial part of the programme. She credited the Courtyard Koota team, led by architect and artistic curator Natasha Iype, with enabling such open-ended and experimental work. The team’s “mad trust,” along with contributions from Priyanka Chandrasekar, Divya Sarangan, Sridhar Varadarajan, and others in production, research, editing, and sound, was vital.
Bindhumalini earned numerous national and international accolades, with a light touch. She creates film music, occasionally acts in theatre, and engages deeply with multiple musical genres through performance, composition, and research. She constantly collaborates with musicians and artists from diverse backgrounds, which she believes opens a “common space of shared creativity” greater than the sum of individual talents.
Recalling school days when she and a friend viewed the moon from a terrace, each seeing it differently without their glasses, Bindhumalini emphasizes that despite the single moon, they both feasted on “many moons.” This essence is what she sought to bring into ‘Many Moons.’
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