Sound of Music

Music has no language and no borders. This year we have been very fortunate in getting opportunity to attend some very unique music concerts by musicians from Germany and France, thanks to Goethe Zentrum and Alliance Francaise who have been organizing these events in the city for many years now.Most of these events are free and one can collect the pass from the institute.

In the month of October for the celebrating ‘The German Day of Unity’ we had he German band Soyza’s Groove showcasing four young musicians all in their 20’s who are all music students of  Nuremberg Music Academy. Soyza’s Groove unites different styles of groove music including popular rock, pop, motown funk, jazz and soul tunes. This group performance was quite adventurous as they were not defined by the popular or traditional Jazz rules.. According to the group, their music is mostly jazz. “Jazz is versatile; it is a demanding style of music that’s based on improvisation. So, one can be creative. Also, we feel as young jazz musicians, it is our duty to keep the music going,” 

Soyza’s Groove is: David Soyza -Vocals, Lukas Grossmann- Keyboards, Moritz Graf - Bass and Johannes Koch - Drums. This group performed in local schools also and my daughter did mention about the band performing in their school where they got best response when they played some ‘Michal Jackson’ number 😊

Raggabund – Another young group of 4 musicians with mixed cultural and geographical background with a very lively, fresh and peppy music. The band is multilingual and sings in German, Spanish or English. Whether critical of society or entertaining, Raggabund is always absolutely authentic: a successful mixture of punchline, poetry and positive message. Two German brothers (Latin American roots) and two Swiss ones - Caramelo and his brother Paco Mendoza were on a South Asian tour with two brothers Luca “De Luca” Bochicchio and Michele “Mikey Board” Bochicchio, of the Swiss band The Dubby Conquerors. Together, the four create music of an eclectic kind, unrestricted by any one genre, freely exploring pertinent human experiences, yet making it a point to keep things positive. They performed in Trivandrum schools and were very popular amng student community ! Check out their youtube uploads and you will know what I am talking about 😊

The next concert we attended was ‘L’Odyssée Cello concert by Sonia Wieder- Atherton from France. This concert happened in the month of November at Vylopilil Bhavan. Just 40 mins performance , but I have not heard anything like that before. ‘L’Odyssée, ’ is one of her “special projects,” which features her on a cello accompanied by an imaginary chorus and a soundtrack of natural elements — the wind, waves, storms, chaos… confronting them and occasionally playing notes inspired by the sights and sounds, people and culture of the place where that particular concert is being held. She was accompanied by 2 other performers one on Bass Guitar other for Vocals – just Alaap and humming. It was a a surround sound performance where the sound of rain, thunder , waves, wind would just feel like that you were actually in between those elements. Next time you hear about Sonia’s Cello performance do try to attend.

This  is C.a.r

This was the one band which impressed me the most for their music – so different but so powerful that it could connect with old and new generations at the same time, all moving and nodding to their music. The first thing they said before starting their performance was that ‘they would want people to sit there with open mind and not to expect anything as in classical Jazz music’ and that kind of made us ready for the unexpected music which followed for more than an hour. 

Founded in 2011 by Johannes Klingebiel and Kenn Hartwig in Cologne, Germany, C.A.R. was originally a quintet playing wild experimental jazz with a pop approach. Featuring drums, double bass, a wurlitzer stage piano, korg and oberheim synthesizers as well as an alto saxophone heavily altered by electronic effect devices, their tunes leave a lot of space for improvisation, but not in classical jazz way with one soloist dominating the music, but always as a delicate web of sound which has a potential to take their audience on an enticing trip.

Leonhard Huhn (Saxophone)  Christian Lorenzen (Wurlitzer Stage Piano)

Kenn Hartwig (Double Bass) Johannes Klingebiel (Drum)

https://soundcloud.com/car-band/the-hexx

Needless to say that listening to music from different parts of the world widen your perception about that part of the world, and so I believe one should not miss any opportunity of attending/ listening to music of the world. Do check the websites of Alliance France and Goethe Zentrum of your respective cities. The Cultural Event calendar are usually updated for the month and as mentioned before most of the events are free , but you need to have the pass which can be collected from the institute.