MD Pallavi and solo bangaloREsident@Abhinaya Taranga Andi Otto have been working on compositions (e.g. "Bangalore Whispers") since 2015, in which they combine her vocals, Andi's cello and slow house music. They are currently developing a performance concept to integrate the electronic processes applied in the studio seamlessly into their live show. They have therefore attached movement sensors to the singer's hand and to the cello bow which allow for a unique gestural interaction with their electronic sounds.
Andi Otto has been playing his extended cello bow system (called "Fello") already for over seven years and has invented an individual technique for his instrument which makes use of the space around the cello. Interestingly, the more virtuoso parts of his playing really start as soon as the bow leaves the strings and continues to play with the live-recorded cello sound in the air.
During Andi's bangaloREsidency, the two have aimed at adapting his sensor system to Pallavi's right hand. The typical, rather involuntary gestures which accompany Pallavi's singing in traditional Indian music can be read and translated into musical data by the sensors. This makes it possible for her to play with her "Second Voice" (this is the working title for Pallavi's electronic instrument) which becomes audible as soon as her hand moves away from the body, changing the pitch, rhythm and timbre of the last notes sung. The superimposition of these two gestural electronic systems holds a surprisingly huge artistic potential which Andi and Pallavi have begun to explore during their development period.
The two musicians come from different backgrounds. Andi is a DJ and producer of electronic music in Hamburg who has written his Ph.D. thesis about the history of electronic musical instruments which involve body gestures. Pallavi is a classical Hindustani vocalist, actress and filmmaker. They met on a theatre stage in Berlin where they performed the German adaptation of the award-winning Indian play C Sharp C Blunt. A mutual curiosity towards overlapping musical cultures brought them to the studio - on Andi Otto's upcoming album "VIA" (January 2017) Pallavi will be featured in several tracks. The innovative live performance of their compositions presented in a test-run here, will prefix a Japan tour in 2017 that will mark the official world premiere of the duo's live show.
MD Pallavi is a singer (Hindustani and folk), composer, actor and filmmaker from Bangalore. Her work includes C Sharp C Blunt, a multi-award winning theatrical solo-performance in collaboration with Sophia Stepf, Playgrounds, a multi-award-winning short film in collaboration with Shamik Sen Gupta, Boy with a Suitcase, a theatrical collaboration with Schnawwl (Mannheim) and Ranga Shankara (Bangalore), Relax your Mind, a collaboration with German string quartet QuartettPLUS1, and HumDrum, an ongoing musical project with percussionist/drummer Arun Kumar. She has a degree in Psychology, English and Journalism and a second one in Hindustani classical music. She is keen on multi-disciplinary collaborations and is currently working on one with Andi Otto.
Andi Otto is a Hamburg-based composer and performer of electronic music. On stage, he plays a unique sensor-extended cello bow which he has developed at STEIM since 2007. This instrumental system which he calls Fello allows for expressive play with the digitally processed sounds of the amplified cello. Andi Otto composes for theatre and dance performances in which he also appears as a performer. He tours worldwide, most recently to India and Japan, where he was a resident artist at Villa Kamogawa in Kyoto. He holds a Master degree in Applied Cultural Sciences and teaches media theory at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern (CH) as well as musical interface concepts at Humboldt University Berlin. In a Ph.D. project at Leuphana University Lueneburg, he researches the legacy of electronic musical instruments made at STEIM since 1969. Andi Otto is also one of the founders of the Pingipung label, a member of the Flinn Works Performance Collective from Berlin and as a DJ he hosts a regular night at Hamburg's Golden Pudel Club. He has released four solo albums under the artist name Springintgut since 2003, and has recently started using his real name for his music.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/en/bag/uun/krr/b16/20725765.html
