East most definitely meets West in a new musical collaboration between two traditional West Yorkshire brass ensembles and Indian bass player and composer Shri Sriram.
Just A Vibration is the title of a musical project led by Shri and featuring Skelmanthorpe Brass Band and Hammonds Saltaire Band.
The former is playing in concert with Shri at the Hull Freedom Festival on Saturday, September 5, and will be joined on stage by saxophonist and bass-clarinettist Ben Castle, sitar player Jasdeep Singh Degun and drummer Marc Layton-Bennett.
Shri says his composition uses the ‘music vocabulary’ of brass and Indian classical concepts. He explains: “During the one-hour performance one piece, for instance, is based on the tanpura, the four-stringed Indian drone instrument which is translated to the four-part harmony of brass.”
He admits that he only started listening to brass band music fairly recently but was bowled over by the sound he heard. “I’ve always been fascinated with combining sounds and styles and since sound is just a vibration I decided to turn that phrase into the title for this project,” he added.
Shri, who wrote and performed the promotional music for the film Life of Pi, is largely self taught, having gone to college to study chemistry. He ended up discovering rock music instead and took up the bass guitar. He is now part of Badmarsh & Shri, an electronic trip hop duo, which has played at Glastonbury and tours Europe and the US.
This month he is recording Just a Vibration with Hammonds Saltaire. The CD will be released in November to coincide with a performance with the band at the London Jazz Festival.
