24 HOURS @ ONCE
CRAIVE LAB, SEPTEMBER 14, 2024, 4:00 – 10:00 pm
LIVESTREAM 360
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This 6-hour long installation showcases live video feeds from 24 time zones, simultaneously projected onto 24 screens, as live musical performances based on the North Indian classical raga system take place, with each raga corresponding to a specific hour of the Earth’s daily cycle.
This event is the first fruit of the broader 24 Hours @ Once project, resulting from an ongoing dynamic collaboration between Arts Letters & Numbers; RPI’s School of Architecture; filmmaker Bill Morrison; and composer/pianist Michael Harrison’s Raga Cycle Project, featuring vocalist Ina Filip; keyboardist Elliot Cole; electronic musician Benoit Rolland; and tabla player Mir Naqibul Islam, as well as Xu Bing’s SCA-1 Art Satellite, with artistic direction by ALN founding director David Gersten, RPI Architecture faculty Carla Leitao and Ed Keller, and EMPAC research engineer Samuel Chabot.
In iterations still to come, 24 Hours @ Once, and the Raga Cycle Project will eventually include 24 hours of new music with 24 ragas adapted to all 24 hours of the day and night, and the integration of an extraordinary 25th perspective — a ‘25th Hour.’ The music explores hybrid relationships between Indian ragas (melodic archetypes) and talas (rhythmic cycles), and elements of Western music. Ragas and Indian classical techniques are adapted for the piano, which is tuned in a unique form of just intonation designed by Michael Harrison. Xu Bing’s SCA-1Art Satellite will project images onto a screen in outer space, while capturing video footage of itself relational to Earth. Conceived of as a ‘25th Hour,’ this perspective will enrich our consideration of global interconnectivity.
PROGRAM
Live video projections by Bill Morrison
Music by the Raga Cycle Project
Michael Harrison, piano tuned in just intonation, composer, vocals
Ina Filip, vocals, composer
Elliot Cole, synthesizer, vocals, spatial audio, composer
Benoit Rolland, electroacoustics & spatial audio, composer
Mir Naqibul Islam, tabla
Timings are approximate; program is subject to change.
Audience members are welcome to come and go.
Please silence all of your devices.
4:00 Elliot, Ben & Mir:
Raga Multani: Alap (Alap is the opening section of a typical North Indian classical performance. It is a form of melodic improvisation that introduces and develops a raga. Alap is unmetered, improvised (within the raga) and started at a slow tempo.)
Traditional vocal composition “Gokul gawm ga chora” in vilambit jhoomra (slow 14 beat cycle)
ca. 4:30 Raga Cycle Project:
Raga Bhimpalasi: Alap
Traditional vocal composition “Nizamuddin Khusrow” in jhaptal vilambit (slow 10 beat cycle) Jhala (jhala is a fast pulse-based exploration of the notes and phrases of a raga)
ca. 5:15 Raga Cycle Project:
Raga Shuddha Sarang: Alap
Sarang Yatra (Yatra is Sanskrit for “journey”)
ca. 6:00 Michael, Elliot & Benoit:
Raga Puriya Kalyan: Alap
ca. 6:30 Raga Cycle Project:
Raga Yaman: Alap
Lehra (Lehra is a repeated melodic pattern often used to accompany a tabla solo, but here it forms the foundation of the composition)
Jhala
Tarana (traditional vocal composition)
ca. 7:30 Mir & Elliot: Tabla Solo
Elliot, Michael & Mir: Flamenco Sketches (Miles Davis), with traditional vocal compositions
ca. 8:30 Raga Cycle Project: Raga Desh – Alap
Traditional vocal compositions “Nanun Guma Gayo Re” in teental drut (fast 16 beat cycle) and “Tarana” in jhaptal drut (fast 10 beat cycle)
ca. 9:00 Raga Cycle Project:
Raga Bhupali: Alap
Traditional vocal composition “Mahadev” in teental vilambit (slow 16 beat cycle)
Raga Malkauns: Alap
Traditional vocal composition “Tarana” in teental drut (fast 16 beat cycle)