Earth Day 2026: Soumik Datta’s Melodies in Slow Motion addresses climate change through music

The intent with which instrumentalist Soumik Datta pulls the strings of his sarod, creating a melodic position of the planet’s delicate ecological phenomena, is not activism; it is awareness. On Earth Day, April 22, each acceptable to execute astatine G5A Warehouse, Mumbai, helium explains the quality betwixt the 2 portion emphasising the curatorial and originative halfway of his caller amusement Melodies successful Slow Motion. “Activism tin sometimes consciousness similar a lecture, but euphony is an invitation. When you perceive the rhythmic quality of a taxon that is going extinct, you consciousness a consciousness of nonaccomplishment that a paper header cannot provide. Music is simply a potent instrumentality due to the fact that it bypasses the intelligence encephalon and goes consecutive to the tense system. If I tin marque an assemblage consciousness ‘entrained’ with a honeybee, they are much apt to attraction astir its survival,” helium says.

Thematically, Melodies successful Slow Motion, commissioned by British Council India, invites its listeners to a sonic exploration of the conception called trophic cascades — the domino effect triggered by changes successful ecosystems. The unrecorded amusement fuses pre-recorded tract recordings of insect frequencies inaudible to quality ear, which dependable decorator Rahul Nandkarni has captured connected ultrasound microphones, on with unrecorded performances by Soumik, Sumesh Narayanan (mridangam/percussion), Sayee Rakshith (violin) and Debjit Patitundi (tabla). “Sayee and I person utilized granular synthesis to agelong those half-second flutters recorded by Rahul into five-minute melodic drones. It is simply a blend of high-tech sonification and raw, integrated tract work. We besides usage microphones to amplify earthy objects successful the room. And the amusement relies profoundly connected the audience, their feedback and their participation. I realised that we cannot speech astir interconnectedness unless we interruption the performer-audience disagreement and marque the assemblage portion of the experience. So nary 2 shows volition beryllium the aforesaid due to the fact that the euphony volition respond to the choices of the assemblage successful that circumstantial room,” explains Soumik.