Worlds Falling Apart — The Bowed String Instrument Esraj Amid a Demolition Scene

Abstract

When working with Pamalka Manjitha Karunanayake in 2018, the two of us ended up recording in Cult Studios (Colombo, Sri Lanka). There, I audio-recorded Pamalka's rendering of some marvelous samples all of which showcasing his deep understanding of the raga charukeshi. Charukeshi is a highly ambivalent raga. As a result, the performance of a skilled player will always convey joy as well as grief, and oscillate between emotional qualities. On this December 4th 2018 none of us had any clue about the catastrophes that were in store. Nevertheless, I had field-recorded impressive sounds of some demolition machinery, tearing down an old building that had been used as an arts centre in Fulda, central-Germany. That was meant to gentrify the neighbourhood. I brought these somehow eerie recordings to my longtime colleague Bernie Rothauer in Salzburg to see what could be done with them in his Ôbaxé studio. Bernie loves to work with weird soundscapes. My then working title was "Making a Trance." This contribution comes as a post-workshop interview about how that music came into being.