Sensational Sounds: Dhaka City Sound Concert mesmerizes at Alliance Française

The Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, in partnership with Alliance Française de Dhaka, organized the second and final concert of the Dhaka City Sound Project on Thursday (July 20) in the courtyard premises of Alliance Française de Dhaka.

The first concert of the series took place on the afternoon of July 18 at the Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed Park Amphitheater in Gulshan 2. The first concert was organized in partnership with the popular YouTube platform DHAKA SESSIONS.

Both concerts were very well attended by people from various backgrounds and walks of life, seemingly enjoying the concerts together through singing and dancing. They were elated to be able to experience Dhaka city’s sound in a new and extraordinary way through the power of music, read a media release.

The City Sound Project initiated by Goethe-Institut and implemented in Dhaka, Kolkata and Colombo aims at creating a musical portrait of cities. The decisive factor is the encounter with an unfamiliar acoustic context and its transformation into a new aesthetic reality.

The City Sound project started in December 2022 with a research visit to Dhaka by Viktor Marek, a German musician and music composer based in Hamburg. During the trip, Viktor Marek immersed himself in Dhaka’s artistic scene and recorded the city’s acoustic impressions. Through this trip, Viktor identified four talented musicians to collaborate with him in producing the sonic portrait of Dhaka: Kanak Aditya (Vocalist), Shagor (Rapper), Eem (Percussion), and Jabiul Islam (flute).

Viktor Marek returned to Dhaka during the first week of July 2023 to commence the production phase of the project. This phase began with intensive rehearsals involving the four selected musicians and culminated in two consecutive concerts in Dhaka.

During the production phase, the contributions of four Bangladeshi artists, namely Eem, Kanak Aditya, Shagor, and Jabiul Islam, were essential. They rehearsed with Viktor Marek and performed alongside him on stage during the two concerts in Dhaka. As a result, the final pieces went beyond being an outsider’s musical portrait of Dhaka and instead became an inspired blend of both inside and outside perspectives. While certain parts of the songs had been rehearsed, the artists improvised, ensuring that each concert was unique.

Viktor Marek: Musician, music producer and artistic director of Dhaka City Sound project.

Kanak Aditya: Vocalist

Shagor: Rapper

Eem: Percussionist

Jabiul Islam: Flute player

Titles of the songs presented during the concerts are:

1. Nightrider 2. Gulistan Flowers 3. Good evening 4. Bass Ektara 5. Cell Song 6. Alal & Dulal 7. Sky, Water, Land 8. Baul Experience 9. The country of colours 10. Aliens Bells 11. Maschinenland.

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