GIRIDHAR UDUPA - My Name is Giridhar Udupa
My Name is Giridhar Udupa, the first solo album from the Ghatam player and master percussionist based in Bengaluru, Giridhar Udupa. Udupa has been playing the Ghatam since the age of nine, when his father and first Guru encouraged him to try switching from the Mridangam to the Ghatam for a recital; he never looked back and has since gone on to play in the largest concert halls throughout the world, playing music with classical, fusion and jazz ensembles, sharing his gift.
The track titles from the album My Name is Giridhar Udupa “Aadi” (The Beginning), “Kushi” (Joy), “Chakra” (The Wheel), and “Bhoomi” (Mother Earth)—are foundational, emotional, and elemental in their meanings. What Udupa has created with the Ghatam is entrancing music, built upon a scale and then explored through improvisation. The album evokes a range of dark and joyous emotional resonances in the listener, with compositions that behave like quicksand—broad emotional landscapes where everything solid is rhythmically smelted into a new material. “Rhythm is always inside us; we need to explore that,” says Udupa.
Given how different the northern and southern Indian classical musical traditions are, it’s relatively rare for a musician to move with ease between both. Giridhar Udupa has made his name playing across both of these traditions, performing with every top Indian classical traditional musician. Udupa refined his techniques under the tutelage of his gurus: “I learned the best of these techniques, it’s not just about music; I learned from my Gurus but how to live a life”. After being introduced by mutual friend and collaborator Waclaw Zimpel, Shackleton, with his background as a studio musician, was recruited to compliment Giridhar’s skill as a live performer and to produce a record by a master percussionist. Drawn by an interest in non-standardised western tuning systems, song structure and elements of trance, Shackleton’s musical language and interests, although studio-based, reacted instinctively with the mathematical layering of Giridhar’s rhythmic performance. In India, Giridhar’s performances can last for up to four hours, with thousands of audience members present. In these concerts around 90% of what is performed is improvised over the structure of a scale, which provides a parameter to work within.
The first piece on My Name is Giridhar Udupa “Aadi”, is crafted from an atmosphere of darkness and foreboding, listeners’ ears being drawn to the layered mathematics of Giridhar’s playing—a performance which shifts to a level where the listeners’ ability to perceive what could come next is sublimely impossible. It’s hard to imagine how one is able to create such a complex network of rhythms which delve deep into the body, new directions, moods, characters and apparitions emerge, disappearing as quickly and cyclically as they once came to being. The rolling sub-boosted Ghatam and higher pitched neck playing of “Kushi” provide a recognisable melodic pattern akin to something like a variant of a hypnotic riff, always twisting and turning in on itself, until it elevates into a furrowing moment of euphoric delight which quickly disintegrates. Each piece itself is full of nuance—feeling, tone and speed dragged along by an undertow. “Chakra” contains a vocal chant moving in and out of the motion of the Ghatam, light dub techniques emphasizing certain passages in Giridhar’s playing, boosting the energy of the listener. The final and most lengthy piece is “Bhoomi”, translating as mother earth, played on an instrument made out of five types of clay, from elements of earth. The piece is an odyssey passing through the elements and taking on varying atmospheres throughout—an abundance of sound stimuli —and with it’s duration, allowing for some of the deepest moments on the record.
My Name is Giridhar Udupa is an album to immerse oneself in, a creation to wrestle with and find peace— from two masters of different musical registers. A gift that collapses and expands with each listen, urging us to tune in to the subtle shifts that occur within and around us each time.
