Tradition

What does it mean to be unfaithful in music? Listening to a conversation with composer Ahmed Essyad, our author reflects on why breaking loyalties may be a necessary condition for musical truth.

In this episode of "Long Take: Life as an Artist", we meet Anusheh Anadil — musician, artist, cultural activist, and social entrepreneur from Bangladesh. She was the lead singer of the band Bangla. The group revolutionized popular culture by bringing traditional spiritual folk songs to urban youth.

Japanese artist Kanako Saito’s works explore the dualities of control and the uncontrollable, artificial and natural, city and countryside. Creating an installation with objects from the surroundings of Gais, she endeavours to take meaning out of materials and change how they are understood.

Vanessà Heer brings a revolutionary feminist perspective to the alpsegen, a traditional prayer chanted by herdsmen in the Swiss alps. The reimagined hymn is a tribute to inspirational women, living or dead, a call to be imbued with their spirit and power.