What is the sound of a culture washing away?

This is the question that multidisciplinary artist, writer, and curator Imaad Majeed found themself asking when they discovered a digital archive of Sri Lankan Sufi sonics during Ramadan 2021. Since then, Imaad has further explored this archival content in KANNOORU, an art-based research project which draws on digital sampling methods and Tamil folk forms of lament to mourn the cultural loss experienced by Muslim communities across Sri Lanka. Through splicing and synthesizing, Imaad creates music that explores identity, community, memory, ancestry, and spirituality. The result: rhythms of the daff and darbuka struck in staccato; voices of devotees stretched into ambient wash; melodies drawn from Arabic maqam and regional influences interwoven by a synthesized harmonium. Alchemized, these sonic elements evoke a lost past while gesturing to a future that may never exist.

As part of KANNOORU in Kolkata, TRI Art & Culture welcomes Imaad Majeed into our galleries for Surround Sounds: Listening to Cultural Loss, a lecture demonstration and live sample set showcasing Imaad’s distinctive process of archival deconstruction to produce contemporary lamentation.