Tag: concert

Andi Otto has been playing his extended cello bow system (called “Fello“) already for over seven years and has invented an individual playing technique for his instrument which makes use of the space around the cello. Interestingly, the more virtuose parts of his playing really start as soon as the bow leaves the strings and continues to play with the live-recorded cello sound with gestures in the air.
During an artistic residency in Bangalore (on invitation of the Goethe-Institut) Andi and Pallavi adapted the sensor system to Pallavi’s right hand. The typical, rather involuntary gestures which accompany Pallavi’s singing in traditional Indian music can be read and translated into musical data by the sensors. This makes it possible for her to play with her “Second Voice” (this is the working title for Pallavi’s electronic instrument) which becomes audible as soon as her hand moves away from the body, changing the pitch, rhythm and timbre of the last notes sung. The superimposition of these two gestural electronic systems holds a surprisingly huge artistic potential which Andi and Pallavi have begun to explore during their development period.

The two musicians come from different backgrounds. Andi is a DJ and producer of electronic music in Hamburg who has written his PhD thesis about the history of electronic musical instruments which involve bodily gestures. Pallavi is a classical Hindustani vocalist, actress and filmmaker. They met on a theatre stage in Berlin where they performed the German adaptation of the award-winning Indian play “C Sharp C Blunt”. Parts of Andi Otto’s album “VIA” (Pingipung 2017) they have recorded together in India in 2016. A mutual curiosity towards overlapping musical cultures brought them to the studio – Andi Otto’s solo album “VIA” was only a beginning of more mutual recordings and releases to be expected in the near future.