Last summer, CALLIOPE commissioned musician and composer Sergio Castrillón to write and perform a musical (re) interpretation of some unique musical transcriptions found by Karen Lauwers and Esha Sil in the course of their research. The result of this comprovisational practic has now been published, with the additional support of the Kone Foundation. "The Guts of the Atlas" explores the timbral perigrinations of Hindustani and Kabyle music through colonial and post-colonial landscapes - poetry and music sung and spoken in Bengal and Algeria, transcribed by various colonizing powers, and reinterpreted and re-imagined through a musical practice grounded in de-colonial and indigenous technique.
"The Guts of the Atlas" was premiered in a live streamed performance at the CALLIOPE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Speaking as the ‘Other’ on May 12th 2021 at 18:00 and published as research material under the Helsinki based experimental music label ART FIRST RECORDS on 18th June 2021.
Listen to the full EP here (link to YouTube).
FOR THE OPTIMAL LISTENING EXPERIENCE, please find yourself a quiet room and use headphones! Turn off the lights as if you were in an electroacoustic music concert.
More on Sergio Castrillón's works can be found on his website.