Archives: May 2006
Wed May 17, 2006
Sama' Duo to do film score for Bengali indie film-maker Sharmy Pandey
This is quite an honor and a thrill, and I'm pleased to make the following announcement:
Sama' Duo will be doing the soundtrack score for an upcoming film by independent film director Sharmy Pandey, a Bengali filmaker and writer based in Kolkata. Some details and links about her work follow, but a quick overview is on her just -launched blog. The blog seems to be a loose collective of her and some close associates, and I love their header:
We believe in experimentation, we believe in love, we believe in friendship, we don't believe in running, we believe in sitting on the pavement and letting our hair down....
Amen.
This will be her third film to date. Entitled "Birth of a Pillow", it is, according to the blog, a "silent film which deals with Indian sexuality". This sounds all at once beautiful, intriguing and intense - and if it is indeed a silent film (i.e. no dialogue), then the music portion may , depending on how she envisions the film, take on an added weight and dimension.
That's her call, of course, but suffice to say Jefferson and I are approaching this with extreme commitment and and care, to best serve the film in a collaborative process.
The plan is to receive a rough cut mid -June. As the Duo places a lot of emphasis and experience on improvisation, we'll take an interesting approach by recording several full passes of improvised takes (some with different instrumentation) as we absorb and react to the film while viewing it.
I imagine the bulk of the passes will be with Jefferson and myself, though we'd like to do a few with assorted guests: Molly Sturges of mJane and Bing!, , Jeremy Bleich (of Birth, a number of projects, and the Sama' Trio), and possibly another singer Im aware of. We'll do some basic pre-mixing here, but I have been invited to Kolkata for the final post -production and synchronization sometime in July. I anticipate it will be in the Kokata stage there we'll collaboratively work on compositing and layering the takes for the final product.
A bit more on Sharmy, from what I can find:
Her experimental short "Ebang Falguni" (2004) has been screened at the Florence Indian Film Festival, the Alternative Film Festival, Picciano, Italy , Tirana Film festival and others - take a look at the links below. She is also a writer/poet. Her second film, "29 Minutes of Loneliness" has also gotten strong attention and is currently making the film festival rounds, according to their blog.
http://www.onlypunjab.com/fullstory0105-insight-Ebang+Falguni+the+Experimental+Short-status-24-newsID-4131.html
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041121/asp/calcutta/story_4031257.asp
http://press.xtvworld.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3358
It was from the descriptions and reviews of her work that made me respond to a notice I saw on the net about the current project. Inexplicably,somehow, I get a very strong sense of depth and vision about her work, and so I contacted her ( I actually have done all of my contacting with her producer Subhankar Das).
No ones' getting paid on this - indeed I have to come up with the scratch to get to Kolkata on my own, and Subhankar is looking for additional financing to help complete the project -- but it feels like we can support some great work this film maker is doing, and stretch our own envelope in the process as well.
This seems like a great work in progress to document on the blog, and I'll keep everyone posted as details develop.
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MSD and Sama' Duo music now on ITunes!
Via the auspices of CD Baby, you can now purchase ITunes versions of the music... heere are samples throughout this site to preview, but here are the direct links for each album on Itunes:
Sama' Duo: Music From the Travel Bug The most current project - samples abound throughout the site.
Six Peaces Solo flamenco guitar and oud - meditatve, introspective.
Run For Heaven From one extreme to the other, this heavy metal freejazz outing from 2000 packs quite a punch!
Buy it, enjoy it, and tell your friends - and we thank you for your support!
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