Late Junction

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Late Junction: Paul Purgas on India’s lost avant-garde

Paul Purgas on India’s lost avant-garde

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Paul Purgas joins Verity to explore the unknown history of India’s electronic avant-garde.

Paul Purgas joins Verity Sharp to explore the lost history of India’s electronic avant-garde and we play music from Saharan WhatsApp messages and a new piece from Okkyung Lee.

Paul Purgas is a British electronic musician of Indian heritage and one half of the duo Emptyset.  In 2018 he found a box of dusty reel to reel tapes in a design school in Ahmedabad, west India. The electronic compositions he discovered revealed a whole new chapter of Indian musical history that transformed his perception of electronic music. For years he had looked towards the West to understand the story of electronic sound, whether it be Stockhausen in Cologne or Laurie Spiegel in Bell Labs, but this changed everything.  Ahead of a Radio 3 Sunday Feature on the subject, Paul joins Verity to play some of the music from the original tapes and discuss the discoveries he made along the way. 

Plus, we shake off the cobwebs with South African accordion jive, a new release from cellist Okkyung Lee and recordings from Saharan WhatsApp messages.  

Produced by Alannah Chance.
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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Paul Purgas on India’s lost avant-garde

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