Description
Violinists Trina Basu and Arun Ramamurthy reimagine the potential of string chamber music with a unique sound both deeply intimate and cinematically expansive. Rooted in traditions of South Indian classical music, Western chamber music, and jazz, the duo is uniquely positioned to create a sound that feels ancient, orchestral, and contemporary or as The New Yorker put it “free-flowing and globe-spanning.” Combined with the duo’s fluency in improvisation, there is a clear architecture to their sound that still gives space for the two violins to be delightfully indiscernible and shine individually. Their debut album on SPINSTER records, Nakshatra, the Sanskrit word for constellation, is a profound exploration of this dance between a collective and singular sound, bursting with energy, playfulness, and a cosmic gravitas.
Their new work explores the current climate crisis facing the globe, and centers the five natural elements – earth/prithvi, water/jala, fire/agni, air/vayu, ether/akasha.
COMPASS TRIO
The rhythmic form of North Indian music known as theka is a uniquely sophisticated container for exploring time and polyrhythm. Separated by hundreds of years and countless migrations of the Gitano diaspora throughout the present day Middle East and Europe, we find the same concepts in new forms through the Spanish compás. This musical connection through history and culture is referenced in the name Compass; both a tool to find one’s way home as well as that which structures time in music, another form of finding “home”. Compass Trio is comprised of guitar (James Labrosse), tabla (Tripp Dudley), and sitar (Galen Passen) and integrates these deeper connections of tradition and music into its interweaving forms, reflections and improvisations. Each piece is a truly original creation, borne out of our own individual creative expressions.