Big smiles as French artiste Paul Armand-Delille aka Polocorp poses with the team at Ek Tara, team Offbeat CCU along with the kids from Techno India School. Polocorp is working on a project, travelling the world for six months to collect as much data, music and samples and is joined by his partner DJ Ayca Armand-Delille. West Bengal, of course, was on the list and the artistes collaborated with Meghdut RoyChowdhury of Make Calcutta Relevant Again and Offbeat CCU. Polocorp also visited Santiniketan to record Baul musicians
All photos by Sannidh RaychaudhuriThree groups of kids from Ek Tara and Techno India School came to record their voices for Polocorp’s new projects. While the first group of five-year-olds recited well-known rhymes, the second group sang retro Hindi songs. The last group, who call themselves Kids On The Rock, was from Techno India School and had harmonies and beatboxers who were on a different level
Polocorp recorded the songs at Ek Tara on his DAW, and after every round of recordings, had the most encouraging reaction after every session. A smiling ‘Thumbs up!’
Post the recording sessions, Polocorp played an exclusive set for the kids and later joined them for a dancing session along with Meghdut Roy Chowdhury. Speaking about the collaboration, Meghdut said, ‘Paul’s music has been quite focused on folk music. So of course, Indian music had to be part of it. He is writing a musical that will feature on Broadway at some point, and wanted to take children’s music and with electronic influences, put it out for adults. Anyone who knows me knows that Kolkata and Bengal so it had to start here.’
‘It is a privilege for me to be here and be a small part of the project. It is amazing to discover the culture, and the project will have a lot of impact on the kid’s lives. I am happy and proud to be here and can’t wait to see what this project does,” said Ayca Armand-Delille
‘The children are thrilled and it’s a big opportunity for Ek Tara as well. It’s always good to see international artistes interact and share their knowledge with the kids. Music is a great therapy for them and, of course, a good exposure too,’ said Shuvasree Biswas, head of communications, Ek Tara.
‘It was quite a unique event for us. Every DJ interaction has been different in this school — some play for the kids and some work with them. For this visit, Polocorp recorded their voice and made videos to be used for his projects and he’s doing it with children worldwide. This was good exposure for the kids and by the time he played a set for them, they had already made a good bond with the artiste,’ said Vinita Saraf, founder and managing trustee, Ek Tara