Created at the National Institute of Design (N.I.D.), Ahmedabad, this music piece was curated by David Tutor when he was invited to visit India by Manorama Sarabhai back in the 1960s.
Back in the day, after India got independence in 1947, space rock and psychedelic rock bands were showing up in India that sounded like low-fi due to a lack of proper music equipment. During this time itself, Gira Sarabhai went to New York to learn electronic music in depth, where she stumbled across John Cage, who was touring Europe with pianist David Tutor. This tour made the artists meet Manorama Sarabhai in London, where they were invited to India to visit her family home in Ahmedabad.
David Tutor then visited India after a span of nearly 10 years. Gira Sarabhai reached out to him for the installation of a synthesiser at the first electronic music studio in India at N.I.D., Ahmedabad. Mr. Tutor also gave lectures and guidance to students on the functioning of Moog. He developed practical knowledge of Moog synthesisers as it was chosen as a primary instrument at N.I.D. By the end of his time at N.I.D., David organised a performance on the lawn where he played a 3-hour-long tape that he assembled from the materials that his students had composed.
It was then Paul Purgas, a 43-year-old London-based sound artist and curator, who was invited by N.I.D. in 2017 to play music from the archives. Previously, he was a part of the lost Moog synthesiser by David Tutor and requested an archivist who was maintaining a handwritten logbook that included some unknown Tudor recordings. After getting the recordings, he returned to England to take training in tape restoration.
In 2020, a BBC radio documentary called “Electronic India” was released, in which Purgas assembled music in it’s cultural context in a new compilation called
“The N.I.D. Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969–1972.”.
As per Purgas, these are manipulated field recordings, pieces linked to birds and nature, inspired by Indian classical music, imagined voyages to outer space, and tracks recalling bleep techno or Alphex Twin. He also believes that electronic sound and music exist free from any baggage. The tracks have a playful quality that captures the dreamlike sequence of the possibility of a perfect world for India post-independence. Purgas also commented that N.I.D.’s short-lived music studio shows a vision of India’s status and it’s attempt at modernism way before today’s concept of sustainability in art.