Sound Spirit to kick off tomorrow

Arts Council’s bi-monthly music showcase to feature Kashmir, Mai Dhai and others

KARACHI:

 The second session of Sound Spirit, part of a bi-monthly series of musical performances by both young and established artists, is all set to take place tomorrow at Arts Council Karachi. The session, themed ‘Sound of Pakistan’, will feature several fresh musicians and students of the Arts Council Music Academy (ACMA), as well as performances by Kashmir, Bilal Brohi, and celebrated folk singer Mai Dhai as part of the 20-piece Karachi Folk Orchestra. 

Director Special Programs, Ahsan Bari shared that the event aims to give a platform to younger artists. Speaking to The Express Tribune, he explained, “There are very few avenues for live performances in the city. It is especially difficult for younger performers since they can’t get a stage. They usually end up performing at low-key gigs in cafes around the city.” 

He elaborated further, “New musicians are groomed and polished through live performance as well as in studios. People still manage to work in studios to some extent, even though that is also fairly limited. There was already a severe lack of live performances and covid has simply exacerbated the issue.”

For Bari, live performance is essential in the path to becoming a successful musician. However, while he is a staunch believer in the idea that practice makes perfect, the Sounds of Kolachi member has no doubt about the amount of musical talent in the country. “The event is essentially powered by the Arts Council’s music academy. We give the stage to our students so that before they pass out of the academy, they can perform on stage and form a following. We also eventually want to invite people over from agencies so that they can come across the talent the city is producing.” 

President Arts Council Muhammad Ahmed Shah while speaking to The Express Tribune emphasised the diversity of genres that are a part of Sound Spirit. “We consider art and cultural activities very important. You want to give a platform to artists to showcase their talents so that they can be recognised. We are fusing a lot of genres. There’s electronic music, folk, pop, rock, experimental music and classical music,” he explained.  

Ultimately, the event is an educational opportunity for newer performers. Through sharing a stage with seasoned professionals, Bari hopes to help fresh talent develop their performance skills. “In creating Sound Spirit, our idea was to take on some stable names from the music industry, mainstream artists, newcomers who have made somewhat of a name for themselves at this point, as well as completely fresh artists,” he shared, adding, “The idea is to merge these kids with senior musicians so that they learn from the experience.” 

However, the composer emphasised that the learning has gone both ways. “There is an incredible amount of diversity. We have young female singers coming in who are writing their own songs, as well as several composers. It’s been a wonderful experience for us, and we’ve ended up learning a lot from these kids as well. Every generation has a new sound and a new way of thinking about things,” he shared. 

Speaking about the sheer amount of talent in the country, with a special emphasis on Karachi where artists from all over the country come together, Bari explained that there is a huge demographic that is largely ignored when it comes to finding new artists. He said, “Even within Karachi, there is so much talent we haven’t tapped into. Karachi’s talent usually comes out of a few specific places. Defence, Clifton, some from Gulshan and Nazimabad. Karachi is huge. We haven’t tapped into the talent present in Malir and Korangi. Are there no musicians there?” 

Elaborating on the social divide and how it spills into the music scene, Bari explained, “We are doing outreach on our part through Arts Council, and we have a database of so many young artists that are interested in pursuing music, but there’s the issue of ‘bridge ke iss paar and bridge ke uss paar’