In sync with innovations

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Australian percussionist Ben Walsh was recently in the capital offering an exciting audio-visual show, specially crafted for Indians. Walsh’s performance, which involved heavy drum beats, stringing guitars and several other self-created instruments, was met with a lot of enthusiasm by music lovers. The high-energy performance that filled the arena was further increased to higher decibel levels, when the artist showcased his exceptionally synchronised act.
Walsh carried a whole series of new instruments for this trip to India.
“For this trip, I am carrying some self-invented instruments including ‘gravity scratch’, which is an innovative form of Djing and a vocal synth, which is a creative kind of synthesiser among others,” says Walsh, who performed a 75- minute solo show titled Loop Zero.
Elaborating on the show, Walsh mentions, “It is a theatrical show with a very strong audio-visual impact that includes heavy drumming with baselines accompanied by trance visuals.”
Sharing his excitement about his performance in the capital, he says, “The response of Delhi audience was overwhelming. Delhi is a beautiful city, full of youngsters, who have varied music tastes. You don’t get to enjoy an audio-visual performance everyday, so this show came across as a refreshing change for Delhiites.”
What sets Walsh’s show apart from the usual musical performances held in the city is the fact that it crossed the boundaries of music. “While I perform on stage, there is an interplay of music and instruments to trigger visuals. So the audience is immediately transported between the worlds of live performance and multimedia installation. I use my limb movements to trigger the visuals and they move according to my tempo,” he explains.
The percussionist admits that Indian classical music fascinates him more than Bollywood tunes. “I like listening to Indian musicians like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pt Ravi Shankar, Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma (worked with him for a concert), Shubha Mudgal and Bismillah Khan among others,” says Walsh, who has experimented with several Indian musical instruments including santoor, flute and mridingam.
Talking about his future plans of visting India, Walsh informs, “After receiving such a warm response from the Indian audience, I hope to come back to India in another six months for a more energised musical show.”