Norient City Sounds: Delhi (Map)
The third edition of the Norient City Sounds series is moored in Delhi, India, as it tunes in to a polyphony of voices, songs, sounds, and narratives that reimagine and unconceal the various worlds and characters constituting the capital’s sonicities. NCS Delhi unpacks and complicates the notion of the city by scattering it into its many cities with their colliding histories, rhythms, tales, and desires. Through a collection of sound pieces, texts, films, photo-essays, conversations, graphic artworks, and more, #DelhiSensate evokes the deeply layered and composite sensorium of a city that both senses and is sensed in a multitude of ways. Curated by Suvani Suri, a Delhi-based artist and researcher.
Contents: Interactive Map
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CompilationThis is a collection of songs bringing together myriad voices from the city of Delhi, where multiple realities collide and co-exist.
Introduction by Suvani SuriAn introductory note to the third edition of Norient City Sounds moored in Delhi, India. This collection tunes into a polyphony of voices, songs, sounds, and stories that reimagine and «unconceal» the many worlds and characters constituting the capital’s «sonicities».
Sound Piece by Neelansh MittraA compositional memoir in which the author introduces a conversation between different generations in his family to delve into and construct the acoustic memories of Jamia, a part of the city of Delhi, India that he calls home.
Interview by Geetanjali KaltaA conversation with the Delhi-based ensemble Chaar Yaar / Faqiri Quartet about the ensemble, language, translation, Sufi poetry, listening to histories, and songs of love, joy, and collectivity in times of divisiveness.
Essay by Devangana Kalita, Natasha NarwalHow can one think about city sounds without taking into account the sounds that have been silenced by the state? This question underscores the essay by Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita as they contemplate the sound of time spent in unjust incarceration by the state.
Sound Recording by Mallika TanejaHow does the practice of women walking at midnight shape alternative ways of listening, intimately and associatively? Mallika Taneja shares a durational recording of a recent walk, inviting listeners to sense a night in New Delhi, India, as they journey alongside.
Video Essay by Kimberley RodriguesIn this video essay, Kimberley Rodrigues reflects on feelings of belonging and identity through the acoustic memories, distinct tastes, sight, and smells of C.R. Park, a unique neighborhood in Delhi, India, a place that she calls home.
Sound Piece by Ruhail QaisarRuhail Qaisar’s experimental composition from New Delhi, India evokes the chaotic magnitude of a city that is forever in the throes of construction, demolition, and frenetic movement, engulfing one in a sensorium of overstimulation.- Quotation by Dylan Robinson
«Decolonizing musical practice involves becoming no longer sure what listening is.»
Interview by Sumangala DamodaranSumangala Damodaran situates Delhi as a site for the unfolding of a radical imaginary through music. She shares her artistic journeys in the city and recent work that traces a thick constellation of connections between Afroasian contemporary musics and migratory movements.
Essay by Shomi GuptaShomi reflects on the music scene taking shape at a certain moment in Delhi, the voices, people, sounds, influences, concerns, and genres creating it, and the moment that it has arrived at now.
Playlist by Shiv AhujaA snappy and disorienting selection of music videos to give you a taste of some sights and sounds brewed over years in Delhi sauce.
Mix by Adesh Rayapa aka DJ KarmaThis compact nonstop compilation by DJ Karma showcases rap and R&B music by artists primarily from Nepal, Tibet, Nagaland, Sikkim, and other regions of the Northeast of India, currently residing in the city of Delhi.
Essay by Sunayana WadhawanSunayana Wadhawan traces a map of stories from Kathputli Colony (Puppeteer’s Colony) in New Delhi to foreground the pressing concerns of artists and art forms that are displaced and delegitimized in the name of urban development.
Sonic Diary by Nithin ShamsThis piece time travels through the author’s experiences of his years spent in Delhi, India, floating in and out of conversations, encounters, perceptions, and memories of the city through mentors and friends who shaped the author’s practice in sound and listening.- Quotation by Pale Blue Dotter, beatnyk
«Despite noise pollution, the birds have found a way to continue singing.»
Sound Collage by Smita Urmila RajmaneA sound collage excerpted from an audio-visual game that the artist is designing in an attempt to reconstruct erased narratives from school history textbooks across India and facilitate a discussion on censored histories.
Audio Documentary by R. Talitha SamuelAn audio documentary by writer, researcher, and listener R. Talitha Samuel, as they report from sites of protest and worship in the capital city of India to make audible the voices and desires of Dalit Christians in the country.
Film by Jayant ManchandaA film that transports one to the listening room assembled by Inspector Khan – a retired police officer, fondly called Khan Sa’ab. In this piece, he talks to the author about his special relationship with music, audio gear, and his adventures as a collector.- Quotation by Ruhail Qaisar
«From the micro-localities to an entire city, the sonic circuitry spreads open in chaotic magnitude.»
Sound Piece by Afreen AkhtarA story-telling session that renders Rashid Jahan’s short story, «Dilli Ki Sair» (A journey through Delhi), into a sound work. Written in 1932, the narration relocates it to a contemporary context where the times have changed, yet also not.
Essay by Anubhuti SharmaIn this essay, the author unpacks memories of the city in the song of Qawwals, observing how in memorializing the past, Delhi emerges in Qawwali not as a location, an identity, or a descriptive category, but always as a space of desire.
Sound Piece by Pale Blue Dotter, beatnykDawn choruses recorded in different parts of the capital city of Delhi, India, are composed into a soundscape that unravels the contradictions thriving in a city just as it wakes up.- Quotation by Madan Gopal Singh
«We were experimenting with various sounds to explore the possibility of a new home.»
Composition by Anirban Ghosh, Anant RainaAn experimental track that juxtaposes two renditions of a composition – an earlier version from Bhisham Sahni’s play «Kabir Khada Bazaar Mein», directed by M.K. Raina in 1982 – and a recent rock opera version conceptualized and performed by Delhi-based Dastaan Live in 2022.
Sound Piece by Gaurav ChintamaniThis piece was composed using sounds collected by the author over time: field recordings, domestic appliances, machines, audio journals, decibel levels, notes, and tones that Gaurav weaves into the soundtrack of the city of Delhi, India, which he calls home.
Film by Abhishek MathurAbhishek Mathur, a musician in an ensemble band himself, ventures out to spend a day with a ceremonious gathering of brass bands. He reflects on the tensions and contradictions layering the multidimensional worlds of bandsmen and the sonic explosions that they create.- Quotation by Anubhuti Sharma
«Qawwali carries within itself the memory of another city.»
Graphic Text by Anis WaniKashmiri artist/writer Anis Wani renders his conversations with musician Ahmad Parvez and visual artist Malik Irtiza into graphic panels that talk about silences, listening, music, acoustic memories, growing up in a contested territory, and the violence of «city sounds».
Photo Series by Nishant Mittal aka Digging in IndiaWalking around the city of Delhi, India with archivist and record-collector Nishant Mittal (Digging in India) and making a pitstop at Ghalib’s tomb as he shares anecdotes from his record collections.- Quotation by Brandon LaBelle
«Listening draws one in while drawing out the underheard.»
- Quotation by Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal
«The train whistles held a precarious hope.»
Playlist by Subhadra KamathWhen our playlist curator began performing, the Delhi indie scene consisted of not more than a handful of women who dared to write and perform music in a largely male-dominated space. The handful grew over the years. This is a playlist to pay tribute to the womxn of Indie Delhi.
Norient City Sounds: Delhi
Norient City Sounds: Delhi
Trailer
Imprint
Curation and Project Lead: Suvani Suri
Project Assistance: Geetanjali Kalta
Graphics/Visual Design: Upendra Vaddadi, Neelansh Mittra
Audio Production: Abhishek Mathur
Video Production: Ammar
Project Management and Editing: Hannes Liechti
Communication & Press: Janina Neustupny
Publishing: Vinzent Preuß
Copy Editing: Meredith Slifkin, Tucker Wiedenkeller
Release Date: September 29, 2023
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Idea, Concept, and Editorship Norient City Sounds series: Hannes Liechti
© A Virtual Exhibition by Norient, 2023
