'Shoonya Gadhh Shahar' by Vijay Sardeshmukh

The fort of emptiness, a mysterious city with ten doorways, a virgin who bears a child… This song by Gorakh bursts with enigma, challenging and enticing at the same time. You might ask yourself: what does it all mean? Or you may give yourself over to the images, the symbols, the metaphors, and the sounds, and perhaps receive an answer which is beyond the mind.

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Find lyrics/translation of this song at
http://ajabshahar.com/songs/details/5...
Discover a universe of Bhakti, Sufi, Baul poetry and music at http://www.ajabshahar.org.
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One can experience a deep sense of quietude in the music of Vijay Sardeshmukh. When we first met him, it was straight from the hurly-burly of a film shoot that we had arrived at his Pune home, only to be hushed by the slow and meditative experience of Vijayji tuning his tanpuras. He has absorbed a fine-tuned precision and profound reverence for the sound of the tanpuras from his guru, the legendary classical singer Pt. Kumar Gandharva.

A powerful composition of Kumar Gandharva, here Vijayji sings it on the 3rd and concluding night of the Bangalore Festival of Kabir in 2009. Contact Vijay ji's son Swaroop Sardeshmukh at +91-9403357210, [email protected].

(Click on Settings for subtitles in English & Hindi. Click ‘B’ on keyboard to remove the black background in subtitles.)

The Festival of Kabir was organized by the Kabir Project, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology along with several other partner organizations in Bangalore in February 2009. It brought together singers from India and Pakistan in an immersive week-long event that included film screenings, live music concerts and talks.

This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team (http://www.ajabshahar.org ; http://www.kabirproject.org).

Song Credits:
Vocals: Vijay Sardeshmukh
Harmonium: Vyasmurthy Katti
Tabla: Mandar Puranik
Tanpura: Vidya Rao

Translation: Linda Hess

Video Credits:
Cameras: Tahireh Lal & Vinay Ghodgeri
Sound: Dipanshu Mitra
Editing: Shruti Kulkarni
Sub-Titling: Shruti Kulkarni and Vipul Rikhi
Collection: The Kabir Project

Place: Bangalore, India
Date of Recording: 01 March, 2009