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Nakul Krishnamurthy

Man gesturing with his hands sitting at a table

Nakul Krishnamurthy is an Indian artist who works with Indian Classical music and explores new ways of conceiving it at the intersection of Western Classical, experimental and electronic music traditions. Using procedural approaches and electronic music making techniques, his work experiments with and attempts to reconfigure the structural foundations of Carnatic and Hindustani musics to generate new interpretations and alternative modes of engagement with the art forms. Through such radical reimaginations, which draw from his extensive study of Carnatic, Hindustani, Western Classical, and Indian Popular music, he attempts to imagine new possibilities for Indian Classical music—possibilities that are sensitive to its history of marginalisation, and critically examine and challenge its power and hegemonic status within Indian society.

Nakul’s debut titled ‘Tesserae’, which reinterprets Indian Classical music at the intersection and interstices of cultures to imagine a transcultural musical space, was released on Café Oto’s label Takuroku. His music has been performed at various venues and festivals including Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; No Bounds Festival, Sheffield; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto; Serralves em Festa, Porto; Café Oto, London; Harrington Art Gallery, Kolkata; KM Music Conservatory, Chennai; and Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. He lives in Glasgow and is currently conducting his doctoral research at Edinburgh College of Art.

Commissions:

Lal̩itam Varn̩n̩am Asuram ലളിതം വർണ്ണം അസുരം

Composer/singer Nakul Krishnamurthy presents a new project that undertakes a contemporary reimagination of the tale of Śoorpan̩akha, a mythological figure from the Indian epic Rāmāyan̩a. Working closely with dancer Nrithya Pillai, the music/dance piece radically reimagines Carnatic music and Bharathanat̩yam to explore new possibilities for the art forms while being sensitive to their histories of marginalisation and oppression. Read more
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