Monthly Archives: April 2017

Mix 247 EDM: What inspired you to start making music?

Soren Andrews: Ever since I was a kid, I grew up on 80s music such as The Cure and Metallica and I got into drumming. However, I wasnt interested in DJing until I went to college at Eastern New Mexico University. One day I was sitting in the computer lab and a trance tune popped up and I told myself that I wanted to do that!

Mix 247 EDM: After inspiration came to you in the computer lab, what was your first step to try to set that goal of being a DJ?

Soren Andrews: My parents were against the whole idea but my sister personally thought it was great. I just stumbled into the whole DJing life because I thought it looked fun and it also looked like that it was something that I should be doing.

Mix 247 EDM: Did you ever take lessons, have mentors, or teach yourself?

Soren Andrews: At the beginning, I taught myself, but with my first official release in 2009, signed on with Elliptical Recordings in Chicago, there was another DJ that called himself DJ Menace that came out of New York. Hes a great guy that took me under his wing and he taught me everything from the basics and how to bold my sound. Also since 2012, a guy named Mark Sherry, whos originally from Scotland, helped mold me into where I want to go now.

Mix 247 EDM: What was your first big gig as a DJ?

Soren Andrews: My first big gig was at Spinning Vision in Chicago, back in 2010! I love the music and the people in Chicago because it is so molded and defined. You get all these people who all love one genre within an entire city.

Mix 247 EDM: After your huge gig in Chicago, what led your career to Utah?

Soren Andrews: While being raised in Roswell, with a town of around 50,000 people, my brother was stationed out in the air force in Utah and he told me to come over and start DJing in Utah. My first gig in Utah was at Area 51 in Downtown Salt Lake City. At the time there werent any monitors in the booth so I couldnt hear myself mixing. From that point on to where I am now, I couldnt have picked a better path!

Mix 247 EDM: I see that you have recently released a brand new track, Pacific Coast Highway, want to tell us all about it?

Soren Andrews: Yes! It all started when I took a trip to Oregon one time with my friends. Starting in Portland, we drove all the way down and stayed in this city called Bandon, which is four hours south of Portland. We then drove further south into Northern California to go see the Redwoods and the coastline and the forest that you drive through inspired me to write this track. This tune is a little softer than what I usually write but I was really encouraged to write something that made me come out of my comfort zone. It has a mixture of future house and progressive trance.

Excerpt from:

Behind the Beat: Soren Andrews Lightin' Up the Trance - Mix 247 EDM

Second Summer of Love celebrates its 30 year anniversary in style, inviting trance master Paul Oakenfold to perform at the highest party on earth!

Oakenfold is in the first stage of his GENERATIONS World tour, hitting 6 continents with a brand new immersive visual experience and extended sets spinning timeless records spanning three decades, with fresh new music from the man himself. And with such a glorious tour comes the desire to do something that will trump anything Oakenfold has ever done to date. On April 11, 2017,the Second Summer Of Love celebration will see Mount Everest Base Camp come alive with the sweet sounds of trance conducted by the Godfather himself; an appropriate genre and artist for such a stunning location.This is set to be Oakenfolds most extreme and record-breaking performance as he attempts to be the first DJ to hike 17,000 feet and perform on the hallowed Mountain! If he is successful he can add this incredible accomplishment to his already stunning resume which includes playing The Great Wall of China, The Hollywood Bowl, Coachellas main stage and Madison Square Garden. Of course, Paul wants to share this experience with his adoring fans and since most of us wont be making the trek with him, he will live stream his performance onEXTREMEas well as hisFacebook page!

TheSecond Summer of Loveis a name given to the period in 19881989 inBritain, during the rise ofacid housemusic and the euphoric explosion of raveparties and MDMA. The term generally refers to the summers of both 1988 and 1989whenelectronic dance musicfuelled an explosion inyouth cultureculminating in massfree partiesand the era of therave. After 30 years, Second Summer Of Love is taking the rave to one of the most gorgeous yet intimidating places on the earth, Mount Everest! I seriously cant think of a cooler (no pun intended) place to spread the word of dance music. Ever hear of the phrase sing it on the mountaintops? Well, Second Summer Of Love and Paul Oakenfold are set to do just that! But, instead of singing, Paul will be dishing out sweet trance melodies and pulse pounding rhythms with Mount Everest as his incredible platform!

Already underway, Paul is proud to announce that he hasdescendedupon Nepal to prepare for an event that will most certainly change his life. The project sees Paul Oakenfold and friends make the journey through Nepals remote villages to Mount Everest for a ground-breaking live concert event at a whopping altitude of 5,350 meters! Billed as the new music mix for the travelogue generation, Oakenfold will create a unique SoundTrek mix to provide his fans a full-on sensory journey. The SoundTrek mixes will be available for download, as well as being broadcast to millions of music fans and travel enthusiasts worldwide. But, in all seriousness, this is a project with a purpose as it aims to raise money for charities through game-changing events, sponsors, and donations, and looks to integrate local culture with music and global EDM! In addition to the main event at Mount Everest, Soundtrek has hired internationally recognized and award-winning cinematographer, Mark Fisher, of Fisher Creative to direct the Soundtrek documentary for an inside look at the trials and tribulations of hosting a concert at the top of the world.

Visit Paul OakenfoldsInstagramor head to Soundtrek on Facebookfor more information and to follow Paul Oakenfold on his massive and groundbreaking journey to the clouds!

Tickets are still on sale for Paul Oakenfold Presents GENERATIONS and can be picked up by clickinghere!

Facebook|Twitter|Instagram|SoundCloud|Website

Maria first fell in love with electronic music in the early 2000's when she heard a little tune called "Satisfaction" by Benny Benassi. Since then she has dived head first into the scene and become passionate about the trance, techno, and tech house genre's. Festival's like EDC, Dreamstate, and TomorrowWorld hold the key to her soul and dance music will always and forever be a major part of her life.

View original post here:

Paul Oakenfold Takes Trance To Mount Everest! - EDM Identity (blog)

"Yo pani bhavi le lekheko chha tyo pani bhavi le lekheko chha bhavi le lekheko metdaina tala tala nepal ma jada daju bhai nepala jane bato mapani khane padhero sangai ko sathi bhai sansarai ghumda malai chha diusai andhero malai chha diusai andheroEverythingis written by fateAnd fate cannot be erased.On the road down to Nepal, O Brother,So many sights to seeBut when I travel this world, my friendIts all just darkness to me" Bir Bahadur Bishwokarma

Apr 8, 2017-

As Bir Bahadur Biswokarma begins strumming the Tungna, anticipation among those who have gathered begins to peak.

We are sat at the courtyard of the Patan Museum where an album launch for the folk ensemble Kutumba has been transformed into a giant, public busk. As a travelling minstrel (gaine) who makes a living out of busking at bustops and chautaris of towns along the Kodari Highway, Biswokarma is used to the attention the Tungna attracts. But even he has never had an audience this big. Then as he begins to sing Kangla ko bato in his uniquely rustic voice, the donations begin to pour in.

Patan has a long history of being generous to its artists, and it doesnt look like it will disappoint us tonight.

***

When I found Bir Bahadur Biswokarma on YouTube, under labels like A blind man singing, or A beggar plays the Tungna, I had reached a dead-end of sorts. As a student of Ethnomusicologywhich studies music through cultural and anthropological lensesI had scoured what little literature is available on the Tungna, but had been left with more questions than answers. Even then, all roads seemed to eventually lead to Biswokarma, who had found small-time fame on the internet through mobile phone videos uploaded by curious travellers, arrested as much by his blindness as his music.

Bir Bahadur Biswokarma is 32, and he has been visually impaired since birth. A resident of Listikot in Sindhupalchowk, near the Kodari border, he picked up the Tungna when he was 16, after deciding that, because it allowed him to sing as he played, it yielded more returns at bus stops than just the flute. As hard as the Tungna is to master, Biswokarma plays it purely by ear; and while he does rely on traditional bhakas and tonal signatures, his penchant for improvisation means that no two songs that he plays is quite the same. Like the long line of traditional minstrels that he belongs to, Biswokarma is no stranger to inducing guffaws for moulding his music according to the crowd that he is playing for, in any of the four languages he can sing in.

The Tungna, Biswokarmas lute of choice, is a stringed folk instrument, one of the half a dozen guitar-like lutes found in Nepal. Played by the Tamang, Sherpa, Hyolmo and other communities, it is a close cousin of other Sino-Tibetan lutes like the Bhutanese Dramyin (Damgyang) and yet unique in its form. Fretless and without a standard scale length, the Tungna, like the 362 different musical instruments in the country, has traditionally been confined to its region, keeping it in a very crude form, making it hard to tune; and harder to master. And like many other folk instruments, the Tungnas popularity is on the wane, despite it being central to cultural staples like the Tamang Selo.

In 2015, while travelling with an arts initiative to Gatlang, Rasuwa, a scenic, traditional Tamang community, I was surprised to learn that there was just one individual in the large network of villages, that could make the instrument. At a school, when we asked the students to draw the first thing that came to their mind when thinking about music, almost all drew guitars and drums. A few drew madals, even fewer sketched a Tungna.

There are people like Agrim Lama, who makes the instrument in Kathmandu per custom orders; Arun Manandhar of Kutumba; and the Project Tungna which have sought to popularise, preserve and document the instrument in the past years, but the tungna continues to remain an obscure and mysterious instrument, its use limited to large cultural showcases or the handful of travelling minstrels, like Biswokarma.

***

When Bir Bahadur Biswokarma ends his song with a frenzied crescendo, nearly Rs 30,000 has been collected through the donations. They will go a long way in helping his young family repay debts incurred while rebuilding their house after the 2015 earthquake. His 10-minutes in the limelight at the City of Fine Arts, we hope, will bring him further attention in the future.

For many like me, the impromptu set, served as a reminder that even while we sit in the cities and make tall claims and demands about the preservation of folk tunes and instruments, musicians like Biswokarmawho are keeping the traditions alive in their indigenous formare now more important than ever. Music, after all, is more than just entertainment; it is intricately tied to culture, society, religion, history and local lifestyles. And once an instrument or a musical tradition disappears, a part of our shared heritage and history dies with it.

Which is not to preach a purely nativistic approach to music; modern-day fusion ensembles have shown the versatility of folk instruments when paired with western musical styles. But as long as sarangi players continue to be labelled as pakhe or dalit, things are unlikely to change. In fact, a majority of traditional musiciansthe Gandarvas, Damai, Jugi, Badiare Dalit, and while social perception about caste is changing, without concerted effort, it might be too little, too late. But still, if Bir Bahadur Biskwokarmas entrancing Patan performance is anything to go by, there is hope yet.

- Deshar is a student of ethnomusicology at Kathmandu Universtiy and a member of the folk-fusion band Ma

***

Watch Bir Bahadur Biswokarma's Patan Musuem performance here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go-L2LJTl9I

Published: 08-04-2017 09:07

Read more:

The trance of the Tungna - The Kathmandu Post