For Immediate Release

Free Spirits of the East and West

Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti Made In Scotland 2015 at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

There are some musical projects that truly personify the collaborative, cosmopolitan nature of Europe's biggest arts festival. Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti is undoubtedly one of them. This year, the ground-breaking guitarist/composer brings the sound, movement and colour of West Bengal to the Made in Scotland Showcase at this year’s Festival Fringe. Simon will be joined for these very special Fringe shows by the deeply respected Sarvar Sabri on tabla, and Raju Das Baul singing and playing the khamak, a traditional one-stringed percussion instrument. This latest incarnation of Svara-Kanti premiered to standing ovations in India in November 2014, and it constitutes an astonishingly powerful acoustic trio and an amazing inter-cultural alliance. Raju Das Baul is from the heartland of the Baul tradition in West Bengal, and he is one of the most mesmerising young exponents of songs that have been handed down from one generation to the next. Sarvar Sabri is one of the world’s most versatile and innovative tabla players, and his lineage in Indian classical music can be traced back to the 16th century court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great. Baul culture is already familiar to students of global music as one of the longest surviving examples of wandering minstrelsy, imbued with mysticism and universal messages of love and truth. It also speaks of Man’s search for spiritual accord with the Divine through the existential experience of music. As an art form, it was famously championed by the poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore who paid tribute to Baul ideas in his own verses. Previous Svara-Kanti projects have often been described as international meetings of musical minds. The concerts for Made in Scotland 2015 will see kindred spirits journeying together through traditional, classical and modern forms in search of startling and unique new music. In this voyage of musical emancipation, Simon Thacker re-invents the traditional melodies and rhythms of Indian music, and completely re-imagines them with daring, improvisational courage. Svara-Kanti is one of Simon Thacker's principal musical identities, and he is rightly acclaimed for his creation of unique "soundworlds" that seamlessly meld culture and tradition with innovation and imagination. As a musician and composer, he is consistently true to the spiritual energy of borderless music that resonates, reverberates and illuminates through unfettered freedom of expression. Those who open up heart, mind and soul to Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti trio will find themselves in the midst of the most liberated, free-spirited new music that the east and the west can offer.

Venue: Summerhall, Red Theatre Dates: TBC. For more information contact:

Simon Thacker 07940 837 190 or 01875 340 713 email: thackerguitar@gmail.com

www.simonthacker.com http://www.youtube.com/user/thealtgtr https://soundcloud.com/simon-thacker https://twitter.com/thackerguitar

https://www.facebook.com/simon.thacker1 www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com

Made in Scotland is a curated showcase of high quality performance from Scotland at the world’s biggest arts festival, made possible by support from the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. It is a partnership between the Festival Fringe Society, the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) Scottish Music Centre and Creative Scotland.