As part of Basilica on the Hudson's online 24 Hour Drone Festival, Neel Murgai from Brooklyn Raga Massive and Unstruck Sound presents this psychedelic sound and visual journey featuring Neel's overtone singing, looping and percussion along with animations and visual effects by Seema Pandya. Time in the music is measured by breaths not bars, as Neel moves exceedingly slowly between overtone melodies, the sound of Aum, chords, textures, chants, drumming and loops. Seema's animations, drawn from her paintings and sculptures, provide the perfect compliment to this meditative, healing space. LIVESTREAMING AT https://www.viewcy.com/promote/neel/neel_murgai_this_is

Illustration by Susan Greenstein

$10 Advance | $15 Door | 8:30pm Music | 10pm BRM Weekly Raga Jam

BRM Co-Artistic Director, Neel Murgai presents a solo performance featuring overtone singing and looping compositions from his new album Reorientation. While his recent Rubin Museum concert featured Neel’s sitar and chamber ensemble compositions from the album, Neel continues to celebrate his album release month with this unique performance highlighting the solo pieces that round out the recording.

Neel’s latest artistic vision, Harmonic Infinity Loops was recently praised by the New York City Jazz Record for his “astonishing vocal control” and “surprisingly cohesive and compelling display”.

This work features Neel’s overtone singing, which he has practiced for 18 years, having studied with Timothy Hill from the Harmonic Choir and Batuvshin of the Buriyat group Uragsha. With this solo performance Neel introduces looping technology to create droning, psychedelic soundscapes of remarkable clarity and depth.

Time in the music is measured by breaths not bars, as Neel moves exceedingly slowly between overtone melodies, the sound of Aum, chords, textures and chants. Every performance is different, as Neel mixes this new sonic vocabulary in different ways, within the context of a compositional element or improvisational fancy.

Compositions can draw from a simple pop chord progression slowed way down, to Indian classical ragas, which Neel has studied for 25 years, to simple words and phrases, chosen as much for their sound as their meaning. Neel often finds himself creating a new alien language as he improvises with consonant and vowel sounds, turned into chants.

Listeners report entering states of deep relaxation as they are drawn into this sonic journey. Neel is also a teacher of overtone singing and can pair his performance of Harmonic Infinity Loops with a group workshop. Even within the context of the performance Neel is known to briefly teach how to produce overtones in an accessible way, and have the audience join in for a spell.

Neel Murgai is a sitarist, overtone singer, daf player, composer and teacher from Brooklyn, NY. Neel has studied sitar for 25 years, currently with his guru Pundit Krishna Bhatt. He is a graduate of Goddard College's MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. His first album with Neel Murgai Ensemble was released on Innova Records in 2010. Neel has performed around the world with numerous artists from varying disciplines including, Bill T. Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Wyclef Jean, Andre DeShields, Karsh Kale, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rudolph, Daniel Bernard Romain, Dana Leong, Ellen Stewart, Laraaji, Yuerba Buena, Baba Israel, Raz Mesinai, Mission on Mars, Akim Funk Buddha, Loren Conners, Louis Bellogenis and Cosmo Vinyl. He has performed at venues ranging from the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center to Late Night with David Letterman to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note and at festivals around the U.S including Art Wallah, Arts Plosure, Masala! Mehndi! Masti! and many others. Neel played in the orchestra for Disney’s musical theater adaptation of “The Jungle Book” directed by Mary Zimmerman. Neel has composed music for many film, TV, video, theater and dance projects including the features, “The Yes Men Fix the World", which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and "A Decent Arrangement" starring Shabana Azmi. His music has been featured in the BBC series, “Holidays in the Danger Zone", and TBS programs, “Women of the Ink", and “Spotlights".   

http://neelmurgai.com

Weekly Raga Concert and Jam Session Series is made possible with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered in Kings County by Brooklyn Arts Council. 

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

With their unique raga-meets-chamber-jazz sound, the Neel Murgai Ensemble celebrates the worldwide release of their new album, reorientation. Neel’s older compositions for the ensemble, rooted in Indian classical music, represent the backbone of the album. His recent solo overtone singing and looping pieces, ethereal and psychedelic explorations, exist in dialogue with the older music and his older self, providing reorientation for heart and mind. This performance features solo and ensemble compositions from the album, amid the group’s signature improvisational dialogue.

Featuring:

Neel Murga:sitar, vocals

Trina Basu: violin

Arun Rammurthy: violin

Marika Hughes: cello

Sameer Gupta: tabla

The concert is presented with Brooklyn Raga Massive, an artist collective dedicated to creating cross-cultural understanding through the lens of Indian classical and Raga inspired music.

Part of a regular Indian Classical performance series at Sacred Arts Research Foundation. Neel and Ehren present some evening ragas and other delectable morsels for you musical satisfaction.

In a unique solo performance, Neel Murgai uses overtone singing with electronic looping and daf (frame drum) to create lush droning soundscapes and primal rhythms. Subtly shifting chords, raga, tala and texture are deconstructed and reassembled in improvisational flights of fancy. The music may induce a psychedelic experience as listeners are washed in an ocean of tones. This performance represents Neel's latest work in a diverse musical practice as he celebrates his 20th year in NYC.

Brooklyn Raga Massive plays their arrangements of Pundit Ravi Shankar’s compositions in tribute to the maestro.

Samarth Nagarkar- vocals

Jay Gandhi- bamboo flute

Megashyam Keshav- tabla

Neel Murgai- sitar

Adam Maalouf- hand pan and cello

Roshni Samlal- tabla

Brooklyn Raga Massive Weekly Concert at Jalopy Presents:

7:00PM WORKSHOP

Overtones exist in every sound in nature. They form the basis for our scales and music and are infinite in number. In a workshop before the concert, Neel will lead participants in a general scientific/mathematic understanding on the nature of overtones, Siberian/Mongolian techniques as well as more accessible techniques pioneered by the landmark group, Harmonic Choir. Neel has been practicing overtone singing for over 15 years and will also share his recent discoveries in polyphonic overtone singing.

8:30PM CONCERT

In a unique solo performance, Neel Murgai uses overtone singing with electronic looping and daf (frame drum) to create lush droning soundscapes and primal rhythms. Subtly shifting chords, raga, tala and texture are deconstructed and reassembled in improvisational flights of fancy. The music may induce a psychedelic experience as listeners are washed in an ocean of tones. This performance represents Neel's latest work in a diverse musical practice as he celebrates his 20th year in NYC.

10:00PM BRM RAGA JAM SESSION

Brooklyn Raga Massive artist collective performs a live film score to the 1973 animated sci-fi classic Fantastic Planet. The film, directed by René Laloux and written by Laloux and Roland Topor, is a surreal journey to the future with powerful allusions to the challenges of today. BRM’s raga-drenched live film score brings the experience of this otherworldly movie to new heights, with music direction by Neel Murgai.
Fantastic Planet (La planète sauvage)

Go: Organic Orchestra is a 21st-century vision of an orchestra of the future. Artistic director Adam Rudolph’s prototypical approach to composing and improvisational conducting embraces musical forms and cosmologies from around the world.

For the first time, Brooklyn Raga Massive, known for “preserving the past while blurring genres in an inventive spirit” (New York Times), will collaborate with Go: Organic Orchestra, creating an ensemble of over 25 musicians who will explore new dimensions in and around India’s traditional raga and tabla traditions.


Adam Rudolph, “a pioneer in world music” (New York Times) and a “master percussionist” (Musician), has a creative, forward-thinking vision. He is inspired by his work with countless legends of music including Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Philip Glass, L. Shankar, and Zakir Hussain. This collaboration with Brooklyn Raga Massive, known as “leaders of the Raga Renaissance” (New Yorker), promises to open new avenues of sonic exploration.


Brooklyn Raga Massive Artists:
Jay Gandhi - bansuri
Trina Basu - violin
Swaminathan Selvaganesh - kanjeera
Neel Murgai - sitar
Sameer Gupta - Tabla
David Ellenbogen - guitar
Arun Ramamurthy - violin

Go: Organic Orchestra Performing Artists:

Michel Gentile – c and alto flute, bamboo flutes
Sylvain Leroux - tambin, flute, bamboo flutes
Ze Luis – c and alto flute, bamboo flutes
Steve Gorn - bansuri flute, hichiriki
Sean Sonderegger – contrabass clarinet
Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon, sona
Julianne Carney-Chung - violin
Sana Nagano - violin
Charles Burnham - violin
Sarah Bernstein - violin
Richard Carr - violin
Stephanie Griffin - viola
Gwen Laster - viola
Jake Carkey - cello
Leco Reis - contrabass
Kenny Wessel - electric guitar
Alexis Marcelo - electric keyboards
Damon Banks - electric bass
Dan Kurfirst - cajon, frame drums, percussion
Rogerio Boccato - pandero, zabumba, percussion