Anandan, Ganesh / Gzowski, John

Shruti Project

Label: Ambiances Magnetiques Country: Canada

Using an electric 12-string shruti stick, a Harry Partch guitar & various percussive devices and bells, Anandan & Gzowski create suspenseful microtonal environments. The two build their own instruments where necessary, and devise their own tuning systems and structures. Most of the music has an active yet introspective aspect, creating mysterious and unusual sonic environments that move along through sparsely melodic percussive progressions. Anandan intervenes in some pieces with a growling and emphatic voice that sounds remarkably like Blixa Bargeld in Einsteurzende's early days, more than Bargeld himself these days! It's a fascinating mix of Eastern sensibility, modern post-industrial ideas, and advanced compositional techniques, a superb album of creepy and interesting moods and ideas.

"Ganesh Anandan was born and raised in Bangalore City, south India where he studied Karnatic music for several years namely the flute with G Venugopal and the mrdangam with KK Parthsarthy. In 1976 after completing university (Bcom) he moved to Canada where he studied music theory and piano privately. He took part in a variety of workshops including Cuban Bata rhythms, Brazilian Samba and was a member of the University of Montréal's Gamelan Ensemble for a year. Since then Ganesh has returned to India on several occasions to continue percussion studies with TN Shashikumar at the renowned Karnataka College of Percussion studying the tavil - a ritual two sided drum and the kanjera - a south Indian tambourine. He had workshops on the bodhran and tar with Glen Velez (USA) and the tammurriata and tammurrelo with Allesandra Belloni (USA) and Carlo Rizzo (Italy).

Since 1990 Ganesh Anandan has worked with artists and companies including Oregon (USA), Bob Brozman - Slide guitars (USA), Debashish Batacharya - North Indian slide guitar (India), Omar Sosa quintet - (Cuba, USA), Carlo Rizzo - polytimbral tambourine (Italy), Glen Velez - Frame drums (USA), La Nef - Medieval and Ancient music (Canada), Michel Lemieux & Victor Pilon - Multi-Media Performance (Canada), Malcolm Goldstein - Violin (USA) , The Karnataka College of Percussion - (India), Ramesh Shotham (Germany), OS Arun - Karnatic vocal (India), Ramasutra (Canada) and Amit Heri - guitar (India).

Sound designer, composer, musician and instrument maker John Gzowski has been found across the globe. He's played for the opera in Banff, studied Carnatic classical music in India, played oud and guitar in jazz and folk festivals across Canada and Europe, played jazz in Japan and written for Dance in Spain. His theatre work has won him 4 Dora's, and another 4 nominations, using live music, acoustic instrumentation and electronic sources. Gzowski has played on numerous CD's, with his latest release coming from a live score for Serge Bennathan's choreography for Dancemakers. As a leader, he has run Canada's first microtonal group, touring Canada playing the works of Harry Partch. He's won the Freddie Stone award (given to Canada's best improvising musician), been nominated for a Juno with the group Maza Meze and recently began working as Co-Artistic Director for the Music Gallery."-Ambian




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Related Categories of Interest:

Ambiances Magnetiques
December 2007
Improvised Music
Electro-Acoustic
Percussion & Drums
Cultural Musics from Around the World
Free Improvisation



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