Music
We both archive folk music as well as create music inspired by the rich heritage of our region.
Musicians
Heera Singh, Vinod Kumar, Prem Chand, Surinder Kumar, Gurdayal &Bobby
Location
Melan, Kothgarh, Himachal Pradesh
Year
Archival Team
2021
Aasheesh Mehta, Mrinalini Singha, Ashish Panwar & Yaduveer Singh
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The Bazo is a pahari band consisting of ten or eleven people. The Bazontri’s or band members play four percussion in - struments and six horns and sometimes a wind instrument called a shehnai. The other instruments are 2 dhool (Large Drums), 1 ngaro (Half Drum), 1 bhano (cymbal) 2 krnaar (Low frequency Horns) 2 kaori (High Frequency Horn) and 2 Hornsingho (S Shaped Horn) ”When played in the hills, these horns produce haunting, echoing sounds” Vijay Stokes The Devta owns two sets of instruments, one for normal village events such as marriages and another specifically for the Devta’s ceremonies called the Deo Khumbri. There are different beat forms that are used for different ceremonial aspects such as the Dressing & Undressing of the
Devta Baja of Kotgarh
We conducted this recording in a community hall with a 2.5 way sound recording system. It was an exciting experience, especially because the band members hadn’t had a session like this before. We managed to record all the variations of the band performance expecting one: a piece performed for funerals. They didn’t know how to play this piece because the region no longer played this- as funerals became more homogenised with the ones performed in the plains. The band members were in fact uncomfortable even talking about it and perhaps wouldn’t have played the ominous piece even if they knew it.
Archivist
Vijay Stokes
Location
Mungsu, Kothgarh, Himachal Pradesh
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The folk music of the region includes Lamans, Ladien and the Bazo. Vijay Stokes has done extensive research on these in his paper-
Laman
Lamans are Pahari poems, “a free-form recitation of thoughts- about sorrow, about life and death, or about romance"— set to several haunting melodies” These were sung while working in the forests and were often in dialogue echoing between people across the mountainous terrain.
Ladien
Ladien are chants performed by women during marriage ceremonies. This might have been a Rajput tradition brought along with migrants long ago.
Laman & Ladien from Kotgarh
Musician
Harul Vinay
Album Artist
Anna / Vasantaghara
Labels
Old Mill Productions & Frozen Woods Records
Year
2021
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A folk metal album by musician Harul Vinay, released by the the labels Old Mill Productions & Frozen Woods Records.
Bharari Ghat
Musician
Harul Vinay
Album Artist
Name
Labels
In the Woods
Year
2021
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