[newsheader]

Sounds of Freedom: A Review

When Music Concerts Resemble Candlelight Vigils

Payel Majumdar and Amaan Khan

An upfront review of all that went on behind the chaos, confusion, impromtu jams and music shared at the recently concluded Sounds of Freedom festival  in Delhi.

When you’re holding a live music event in Delhi, unpredictability is your best friend, and your worst enemy. This includes everything from the weather, the traffic, technical glitches, administrative issues to the audience. The Sounds of Freedom concert, with a massive line-up of artists from all over the world, with punk legend Bob Geldof, popular Egyptian hip-hop group  Arabian Knightz, Bangladeshi folk singer Anusheh Anadil to Malayalam rock band Avial, Kailasa and blues band Soulmate encompassing the realms of folk, hip-hop, blues, punk, alt-rock et al and the infectious ideas of artists coming together for the cause of freedom of expression, sounded like a perfect evening to attend on paper. So thought 10,000 people, who bought tickets for it, despite it being postponed once before.

Held at NSIC Exhibition grounds, Okhla, known before for holding the North East Festival in 2013, was chosen as the venue by Teamwork, the organisers of Sounds of Freedom, after the event got postponed previously from February to a month later in March.

What ensued was a roller coaster of events for artists, organisers and audiences alike. Less than a day to go before the event, the police denied permission for the festival to take place citing security reasons. (Later in a statement released by Delhi Police, the police justified the action taken saying they were informed more than 10,000 people were expected to attend the festival, posing a potential law and order and traffic disruption threat. The organisers in their turn claimed that it would not have been so, since they had reduced the number of car parking permits, and were encouraging people to travel by the Metro.)

A press conference called in the morning to alert the media about a special hearing by the HighCourt at Justice Hima Kohli’s residence declared that it was miraculously happening. However, the festival had to be shortened to five hours from 5 pm to 10 pm rather than from 1 pm to 10 pm as initially scheduled, with an upper limit of 1,500 people allowed for the event. Rising above the mishap, all artists came out in support of the festival, ironically themed around freedom. Bob Geldof spoke out in favour of the organisers in strong words stating, “All of us have come here to play and we take any excuse to come to India and play. Essentially without Indian history and civilization, you don’t get the idea of tolerance and freedom of expression and to come here and face this… As Indians, Irishmen, Englishmen, Bangladeshis and Americans, it is absolutely not in the gift of the authority to keep us quiet. We will still go out and play for that is our right and that is our specific right.”

The crowds slowly starts pouring in after all the confusion.

All the confusion ended up in crowds not turning up and the vast venue looked empty when the event began, with a crowd of 200 odd people instead of the thousands who were scheduled to arrive. The line-ups had shifted all across the board, as the artists who were to perform simultaneously on two different stages had all gotten squished onto only one stage that was sanctioned by the authorities.

However, all artists came out valiantly in support of the event, and the event took a rather rousing turn, with most performers choosing numbers from their coterie that speaks out against political oppression in sync with the sentiments at the event. Bob Geldof, the first to perform, set the tone with his “The Great Song of Irreverence” and the once Number One UK Single “Rat Trap” as the crowd was awestruck with this old yet still delightfully irreverent band putting up a show like never, sadly but a glimpse of it as it ended within three songs.

Rajasthan Josh were next in the pipeline, and had but begun to warm up the audience to it’s very different vibe with the crowd pleasing “Laal Meri” folk song, as Chugge Khan danced along with the kalbelia dancers while playing the kartal.

The much awaited Arabian Knightz collaborating with MC Amin was up next, and the crowd picked up the tempo and cheered them on as they began their act. While their rousing reggae-hop music and interactive act got the crowds to sway, the variety of their Arab-English lyrics was unfortunately lost in the muffled up sound, which we suspect was a result of the time crunch. (Two days which were spent on sound-check prior to the event should’ve been sufficient to fix such teething problems, but alas.)

The jittery tumble as a result of the permission fiasco was apparent even in the performance of Saurav Moni and his band, which performed two bhatiali songs that he personally had retrieved and archived from remote villages, oral heritage that was otherwise lost to urban crowds. All the members of the band performed in colourful traditionally tied dhutis, with a dotara and a traditionally played harmonium in tandem with the clash of drums. Saurav promised the crowd more of his music, reserving it for the ‘next time’ he would come to the Capital with the band. Vikoo Vinayakram with his percussion set on tuned ghatams, accompanied by his son V. Selvaganesh on the kanjira were the surprise rabble rousers getting the crowd to clap along with them with their wit. Sonam Kalra and the Sufi Gospel Project and Winit Tikoo’s set were both audio-visual spectacles, Sonam presenting her unique blend of Old Gospel and Sufi Music and Winit his fresh Urdu poetry set to the aggression of alt rock.

Anusheh Anadil and her modern Jatra band Bahok were like a gush of fresh wind, and despite sound interferences, they presented a lovely albeit brief gist of themselves and their interpretation of Bangla folk, music, philosophy and performance all tied up together. Anusheh read a moving poem that she had written in the event of all the police trouble that she began her set with. Loknaad, the husband-wife duo with their rendition of protest songs to a dafli were poignant with a piercing gaze at rural issues, and the lack of respect for human life and each individual.

A visibly upset Tipriti Kharbangar delivers heart wrenching vocals during Soulmate’s performance.

Soulmate was the act of the day for us however, with their hackle raising song (yes, they performed just one), Raveen Panday killing it with his keyboard solo, Rudy as expected working the guitar’s notes like rippling water with his deft fingers, and Tipriti putting all her soul (and rage) in that one song which left us aching for more music. Rewben’s folk tunes got lost in the milieu, despite his earnest efforts, with the two-song cut-off.

Avial on the other hand, was a study in contrast, with the unperturbed band taking their own sweet time for sound-check, and then Tony John took centre-stage and everybody’s attention with his pitch perfect voice.  They performed their tongue-in-cheek song “Suprabhatakali” with its take on all the complexities of a democracy.

Apart from the performances, there were short but powerful speeches given by renowned filmmaker MK Raina and RTI activist Nikhil Dey, who spoke out against the initial police decision and said such an incident would not happen again if for all the fifteen thousand people who were scheduled to attend, even fifteen RTIs were filed to look into the incident. While it was a pity that crowds as expected could not turn up, the performances just reminded us of what it could have been with such a unique line-up of performances, with musicians exploring freedom of several forms, whether political or personal, or the freedom of the mind and soul. Yet, most importantly, despite all the mish-mash of events, audiences had a chance to watch some earnest good music brought together in a single space of an evening.

What Worked:

1. It happened.
2. Much behind the scenes action! At the dinner during the previous evening, percussionist Vikku Vinayakam and Bob Geldof raked up a storm with some impromptu busking at their table for the benefit of the room. Also, check out the video of Arabian Knightz and Rajasthan Josh killing it with their rap battle here.
3. Bob Geldof’s speech before the event, and Anusheh’s poetry on the little valued but fundamental right to expression.
4. The minimalist yet beautiful sets that added to the hands-on charm of the event.
5. Soulmate’s performance, Tony John’s flamboyance, Vikku Vinayakam’s energy, Loknaad’s earnestness.
6. Snippets by MK Raina, Nikhil Dey which acted as a surrogate manner of giving a 101 on political awareness and the importance of the individual in a democracy.

What Didn’t Work:

1. The sound system, for one, that subjected a lot of bands to crackling mics.
2. The two-song time-limit for every band; this threw the audience as well as the bands out of their comfort zone. Often bands ended up shortening their songs to fit into the time limit given, and were asked to leave the stage and not cut into the other bands’ time.
3. The last minute suspense over the event. We hope to see a smooth edition of SOF soon minus the administrative glitches.

[newsfooter]