{"id":5823,"date":"2021-11-19T16:17:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T10:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalmusicinstitute.in\/?p=5823"},"modified":"2021-11-19T16:17:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T10:47:42","slug":"amal-s1-2-anahad-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalmusicinstitute.in\/v1\/amal-s1-2-anahad-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Amal | S1.2: Anahad Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hope, to us, is the spark that ignites a flame in the darkest of places. In today’s times, hope is the essence of what keeps us moving, and creating. We’ve had the privilege of experiencing the light and warmth of our #GMITribe this past year. And so, we’re proud to announce a new and exciting series, Amal. With Amal, we want to carve out a safe space for creating and listening.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The first season focuses on Folk music from around the country. While folk music in India is mostly an undocumented art form, there are a few organisations that are tirelessly working to shine the light on this forgotten style of music. One such organisation is Anahad Foundation<\/a> that was founded by Abhinav Agrawal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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In the first part<\/a> of this piece, we talked about Abhinav Agrawal\u2019s early life and all that drove him to create an empowering space for folk artists that is Anahad Foundation. In this piece we will discuss the journey of Anahad Foundation and how it evolved into what it is today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The First Studio<\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>Soon after Abhinav registered Anahad Foundation<\/a>, he realised that he wasn\u2019t quite ready to take on this mammoth task. He needed to work more on his knowledge of how this body of work would function and that\u2019s how he ended up studying the music business program at Berklee College of Music\u2019s Valencia campus<\/a>. His organisation and case was an interesting one for Berklee as it was the first non-profit that the faculty was working with. The Director placed Abhinav under the guidance of Boston Conservatory<\/a>‘s then President<\/span> so that he could get the relevant education that he needed. \u201cWhile at Berklee, my hypothesis was that folk music isn\u2019t being produced in the manner that Bollywood or Indie music is. These musicians don\u2019t have the money to go to a studio or the equipment that can help them get better recordings. And because it isn\u2019t getting recorded properly, we are unable to experience every element and also the arrangement of folk music. So based on that, I created a studio in Delhi, and then I started calling the folk artists to come and record their music at the studio free of cost. Unfortunately, that flopped,\u201d Abhinav recalled. Free studio time wasn\u2019t enough motivation for these musicians. Expenses like travel and stay were also unaffordable for a lot of these artists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Disheartened by how the studio set up panned out, Abhinav decided to go back to how it all started. He decided to travel for a couple of months and again found himself recording folk artists in their familiar spaces.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took a really long train to Jaisalmer during this time and met a musician called Dapu Khan who plays a rare and ancient instrument called <\/span>Kamaicha<\/span>. I recorded him, made a website for him, created business cards for him, and taught him how to give them out as well. And within a month, he got a tour to Germany. That was the tipping point for me.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n