Chassol Explores the Music and Sounds of India

Chassol  Indiamore
Chassol
Indiamore
Chassol

Indiamore (2013)

French composer and multi-instrumentalist Chassol traveled to India in 2012. In Kolkata (Calcutta) and Varanasi (Benares), Chassol filmed sitarists, percussionists, singers, dancers, children, and the sounds of the city. Back in the studio, Chassol put together the documentary titled Indiamore. The musical score to Indiamore features harmonized sounds, combining jazz, pop, electronics and contemporary classical minimalism with Indian traditional music and street recordings.

The musical score has a very cinematic feel. The album begins with spoken word in French accompanied by keyboards. The Indian musicians and street sounds appear later in the form of vocalists, percussionists and sitar players. The material recorded in India has a field recording sound, which is mixed with much sharper studio tracks featuring Chassol on keyboards, bass and vocals; Lawrence Clais on drums and Alice Lewis on vocals.

The Indian guests include Ashok Pandey on tablas and vocals; Prerana Srivastava, Prerana Sneha Awasthi, Puja Nene & Neha on vocals; Akansha Singh on sitar and vocals; Jay Pandey on vocals; Bohme on vocals; Tuntun Srivastava on vocals; Gubbai on violin; Pria on vocals; MS Subbulakshmi on vocals; and Radha Viswanathan on vocals.

Christophe Chassol studied piano and harmony at the Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris, as well as Philosophy at La Sorbonne University and Orchestration and Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

In 2005, Chassol wrote and recorded the 6-volume album ‘Studiogames’ for pianos and machines. In 2006 he released the album ‘Avtosamples’ and in 2007 ‘x-pianos‘ for infinite pianos and machines.

Indiamore is an intriguing journey through the world on Indian traditional music, ambient sounds, jazz improv and contemporary western minimalism.

Buy Indiamore

Author: Angel Romero

Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.

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