COLLABORATIONS
BENOIT ROLLAND & INA FILIP
Benoit Rolland is an electroacoustic composer, with influences ranging from free jazz to hiphop to ethnic. He has worked in different collaborations, composing music for theater and films, accompanying storytellers on their tours, and being part of punk and noise bands. He surprised Ina when, upon meeting her and without knowing what Dhrupad was, he shared with her a 'precious musical piece', which turned out to be an acient recording of Sayeedudin Dagar, on of the
great Dhrupad exponents. Realizing their common love for this music, they started a music collaboration in 2018. Benoit also travelled to the Dhrupad Sansthan Institute in India twice to learn more about this music. Their first EP 'Dhrupad Electroacoustique', will be released in 2022 (the tracks below are a preview of this project).
PAYTON MACDONALD & INA FILIP
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Payton MacDonald is a contemporary classical composer and percussionist as well as a Dhrupad singer. He is also a music professor at WP university, in NJ, USA.
Payton's and Ina's first musical exchanges date back to 2014, while they were both living in India learning Dhrupad. Over the years they have explored singing Dhrupad as a duo in different contexts, ranging from the traditional form of a Classical Dhrupad concert to live performances including electronic elements, etc. Their most recent artistic inspiration:
exploring the bridges between Dhrupad and classical polyphony. The album "Polyphonic Malkauns" will be released in 2022. Michael Harrison, contemporary composer specialized in microtonal music, released a piece in 2021 (with Cantaloupe music) in collaboration with the duo. A polyphonic exposition of Dhrupad vocals and microtuned piano.
C# ORCHESTRA & INA FILIP
C# Orchestra (aka Kai Matthews), a composer with a classical degree from a jazz university (Berklee), is also a long time Classical Indian music student whose main instrument is the fretless guitar. His music collaboration with Ina Filip dates back to 2008. Their common love for Indian music, West African music and electronica genres has inspired their musical exchanges, which range from different band formations to being studio geeks collaborators. Kai has been, especially in the early years, a music mentor to Ina, exposing her to many music styles and inspiring her to broaden her capacity to listen and comprehend music. In their latest project, they have called upon Adham Shaikh to join in the creation an EP (Syena, Turtle Music, 2021). The track below is a sample of the trio's collaboration.