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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-Kantiis 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 years Festival Fringe. Simon will be joined for

these very special Fringe shows by the deeply respectedSarvar Sabrion tabla, andRaju Das

Baulsinging and playing thekhamak, a traditional one-stringed percussion instrument.

This latest incarnation of Svara-Kanti premieredto 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 worlds most versatile and innovative tabla players, and his lineage

in Indian classical music can be traced back to the 16thcentury 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 alsospeaks of Mans 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 Thackeremail:thackerguitar@gmail.com

mailto:thackerguitar@gmail.commailto:thackerguitar@gmail.com

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www.simonthacker.comhttp://www.youtube.com/user/thealtgtr

https://soundcloud.com/simon-thackerhttps://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 worlds biggest

arts festival, made possible by support from the Scottish Governments 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.

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