Tabla · In Tabla

The gap between Western music and music from other latitudes has led to discourse of all kinds, often imbued with certain political stances. This discourse ranges from ethnographic debate, grounded for many years in comparisons between “us” and “them”, to the appropriation and analysis of sounds from outside Western music. Octavi Rumbau has fused the tabla with electronic music. His work, which is devoid of any ritual connotations or reverence, is based on collaboration with researcher Ajay Srinivasamurthy, from Pompeu Fabra University’s Music Technology Group, and percussionist Miquel Bernat. To systematise the possibilities open to them, an acoustic analysis was made of different bols (the possible sounds that can be made on a tabla). The main aim was to find a balance between performative freedom and the limitations involved in pre-recorded electronic music, a support that cannot be modified. The solution, according to Rumbau, was for “the electronic sounds to become ‘the score’” to which the performer reacts through guided improvisation. Niti Ranjan Biswas rounds off the concert with a sample of traditional Hindu music for solo tabla.