7K!

‘My Name is Giridhar Udupa’, the first solo album from the Ghatam player and master percussionist based in Bengaluru, Giridhar Udupa. Udupa has been playing the Ghatam since the age of nine, when his father and first Guru asked him to try switching from the Mridagam to the Ghatam for a recital, he never looked back and has since gone on to play in the largest concert halls throughout the world, playing music with classical, fusion and jazz ensembles, sharing his gift. The Ghatam, from sanskrit translating as pot, is an open mouth ancient percussive instrument played in the South Indian Carnatic musical tradition. Ghatams are built in one village, Manamadrai, constructed from five types of clay, and tapped over 2000 times to get the intended pitch. Giridhar Udupa is a disciple of the Ghatam and travels the world not only playing but taking extra time to talk about the provenance of the instrument and the carnatic tradition. In 2015 he founded the Udupa foundation, taking music to people who don’t have access to attend musical concerts, bringing musical performance to them.

The track titles from the album ‘My Name is Giridhar Udupa’, “Adi” (the beginning), “Kushi” (“joy”), “Chakra” (Meeting point for an energy system) and “Bhoomi”(Mother Earth) are; foundational, emotional and elemental in their meanings. The music which Udupa has created with the Ghatam is an entrancing music built upon a scale then explored through improvisation. The album evokes a range of dark and joyous emotional resonances in the listener, with compositions which behave as quick sand, broad emotional landscapes where everything solid is rhythmically smelted into a new material. “Rhythm is always inside us, we need to explore that” says Udupa.

Given how different the northern and southern Indian classical musical traditions are, it’s relatively rare for a musician to move with ease between both, Giridhar Udupa has made his name playing across both of these traditions playing with every top Indian classical traditional musician. Udupa refined his techniques under the tutelage of his gurus “I learned the best of these techniques, it’s not just about music I learned how to live a life from my Gurus”. Udupa wanted to record a solo record on the Ghatam, and after being introduced by mutual friend and collaborator Waclaw Zimpel, Shackleton with his background as a studio musician was recruited to compliment Giridhar’s skill as a live performer and to produce a record by a master percussionist. Drawn by an interest in non-standardised western tuning systems, song structure and elements of trance, Shackleton’s musical language and interests although studio based reacted instinctively with the mathematical layering of Giridhar’s rhythmic performance. In India, Giridhar’s performances can last for up to four hours, with thousands of audience members present. In these concerts around ninety percent of what is performed is improvised over the structure of a scale which provides a parameter to work within.

The first piece on ‘My Name is Giridhar Udupa’, “Adi”, is crafted from an atmosphere of darkness and foreboding, the listeners ear being drawn to the layered mathematics of Giridhars playing, a performance which shifts to a level where the listeners ability to perceive what could come next is sublimely impossible. It’s hard to imagine how one is able to create such a complex network of rhythms which delve into deep into the body, new directions, moods, characters and apparitions emerge, disappearing as quickly and cyclically as they once came to being. The rolling sub boosted Ghatam and higher pitched neck playing of “Kushi” provide a recognisable melodic pattern akin to something like a variant of a hypnotic riff, always twisting turning in on itself until it elevates into a furrowing moment of euphoric delight which quickly disintegrates. Each piece itself is full of nuance in; feeling, tone and speed, dragged along by an undertow. “Chakra” contains a vocal chant moving in and out of the motion of the Ghatam, light dub techniques emphasizing certain passages in Giridhar’s playing, boosting the energy of the listener. The final and most lengthly piece, “Bhoomi”, translating as mother earth and played on an instrument made out of five types of clay. This piece is an odyssey passing through the elements and taking on variant atmospheres throughout, there is such an amount of sound stimuli to focus on throughout the piece with its duration allowing for some of the deepest moments on the record. ‘My Name is Giridhar Udapa’ is an album to steep in, a creation to wrestle with and find peace in from two masters of different musical registers. A gift which collapses and expands with every listen, and provides the opportunity to be attentive to the small changes which take place within and around us on every listen.