Concert | Talk

In this issue, Paul Purgas presents not only one of his own works but also a spectacular discovery of electronic music from India in the early 1970s. Stefan Keller (tabla, electronics) performs his piece *Persona* with Andreas Fischer (bass).

Zwei Komponisten im Studio für elektronische Musik des National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad

In 2017, Paul Purgas discovered a collection of early Indian electronic music at the National Institute for Design in Ahmedabad: the ‘NID Tapes’. Compiled between 1969 and 1972, this collection documents electronic works by the hitherto unknown Indian composers Gita Sarabhai, I.S. Mathur, Atul Desai, S.C. Shama and Jinraj Joshipura. They worked at the country’s first studio for electronic music, which had been established at the NID in the early years following Indian independence – a time of visionary experimentation and artistic freedom.

Together with the guests, they discuss the manifestations of electronic music in other cultural contexts and, in turn, its influence on contemporary composition.

About the artists

Paul Purgas is an artist and musician based in the UK who works with sound, performance and installation. In his work, he explores the interwoven histories of design, music and spiritual philosophy, focusing on the cultural exchange between Eastern and Western modernism.

Paul Purgas has produced several documentary programmes for BBC Radio, including ‘Electronic India’ (2020) and ‘Krishnamurti in England’ (2023), and is the editor of the essay collection *Subcontinental Synthesis* (Strange Attractor/MIT Press 2024). His most recent multimedia exhibitions include ‘In the Temple of the Earth’ (Southwark Park Galleries, 2024) and ‘We Found Our Own Reality’ (CTM/Transmediale 2023). He is represented by the Niru Ratnam Gallery in London.

Stefan Keller was born in Zurich in 1974. From 1995 to 2002 he studied the oboe in Zurich; from 2002 to 2007 he studied composition, music theory and electroacoustic music at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin; and in 2019 he was awarded a PhD in Comparative Musicology from the Free University of Berlin. From 2006 to 2016, and again since 2020, Stefan Keller has been teaching at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

Performers of his works include, amongst others: Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ictus Ensemble, KNM Berlin, Zafraan Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble ascolta and Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart. Since his first visit to India in the spring of 2005, Stefan Keller has been exploring North Indian classical music and learning to play the tabla. In 2012 and 2013, he received a one-year DAAD scholarship for a study visit to Mumbai.

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