Mahaphon Clang jazzes up Pakistan

German quintet discusses their band’s distinct genre and week-long tour of the country.

KARACHI:

What sort of music do you get when you put four young Germans and a renowned classical jazz musician in a band? Chances are you would get something analogous with the Mahaphon Clang. The German quintet, who describes their music as “music of the moment,” was on a week-long tour of Pakistan. While preparing for their concert and live performance, the band spoke to The Express Tribune about how they began their journey and their distinct style of music.

Mahaphon Clang’s drummer, Demian Kappenstein, revealed that the band initially started as a four-man group. Lautstark!4, sans Ramesh Shotham, Jan Kruth, Matthias Kruth, Lutz Streun and Kappenstein had met while studying in different universities in Germany and decided to form a band after realising their mutual love for experimental music. Shotham, a renowned German jazz musician, joined the band later. After he saw one of their live concerts, he expressed his desire to perform with the band on a regular basis.

The band describes themselves as an intergenerational project due to the age difference between Shotham and the remaining band members, with Kappenstein remarking, “He is as old as our dad.” Despite the generation gap, all the band members agree that Shotham’s contribution to the band’s progress has been invaluable, likening him to a “friend with more experience.”



Unlike other contemporary bands, Mahaphon Clang doesn’t have any strict playlist or routine for their live performances, with the band members playing what can be termed as extempore music. The group combines elements of Karnatik, Hindustani music, free jazz, European Avant Grande, and popular music, such as bhangra, Bollywood, funk and hard rock, among others, during their live gigs.

Jan Kruth, vocalist of the band, said most of the band’s songs don’t usually include singing and they mostly use his voice as an instrument. “It’s the tradition of instra-vocal singing. I sing melodies, I also scream, I make all sorts of noise. Just like Lutz, our saxophone player uses his saxophone and I use my voice in a similar manner,” he remarked.

He added that the instra-vocal technique was being used by artists in rock and contemporary music genres and that they were not the first to do it. But unlike their predecessors, the band has approached it in a different manner in an attempt to experiment further with their style of music.

Jan, who uses a megaphone instead of a microphone while singing or making sounds, explained the reason behind it, saying, “For me, this is a filter and an acoustic effect but, at the same time, you can also use it like a percussion instrument. If you do like voice percussion through the string, the sound becomes very sharp and progressive, and it’s beautiful.”

This is the band’s second tour of the country. During their last visit, the group famously performed an unrehearsed piece with tabla virtuoso Ustad Bashir Khan and his student Waqas Gulab at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) in Karachi. This time around, the band has also performed concerts in Lahore and Islamabad.

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Ramesh Shotham, the patriarchal figure of the experimental group, said that the band has already recorded an album titled Mela Thing in Chennai, India, which will soon be released by Morgenland Records.

Apart from that, he also mentioned that none of the band members were completely tied down to one specific project and had their personal projects on the side. “To make a living through music and one band is very hard these days. You need to continue to do a lot of different things simultaneously, which is good as you get to gather more experience,” stated Shotham.

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Published in The Express Tribune, March  7^th,  2015.

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