Nithin M Menon & Raman Iyer

Musical instruments can create a mosaic of sounds that range from lively to introspective, pensive to joyous, shrill to muted, sensuous to austere, loud to soft, and sustaining to fleeting. The genealogy of musical instruments has followed as humans evolved their culture of music making. Starting as simple rudimentary instruments, the evolution has been marked with innovation and an intent to create melodious and harmonious sounds.

This session illustrates the varying sound patterns that can emerge from different musical instruments and also their evolution through performances by musicians Raman Iyer and Nithin M Menon.

In this session, Iyer narrates the story of the mandolin, a stringed musical instrument that belongs to the lute family, interspersing his narrative with a demonstration of his signature musical style and techniques of playing the mandolin, while Menon showcases the mystical sounds of the hand pan, a percussion instrument that is widely known as a sound sculpture.