Caves, Dwellings & Vibration: Performance by Paul Purgas
This is an edited recording of a performance by Paul Purgas.
This performance took place during day 2 of Caves, Dwellings & Vibration, a two-day programme deepening and complexifying our relationship with caves through talks, music, film and performances.
Paul Purgas assembled a new sound performance, constructed entirely with materials from the archive of Deben Bhattacharya, a key pioneer in the development of field recording in South Asia and a figure who shaped the global sonic understanding of non-Western sound. The performance gathered excerpts from Bhattacharya’s extensive body of work captured across India and the Middle East, creating an archival reflection on themes of time and geography, and incorporating elements of ancient music, ritual acts and environmental recordings.
Paul Purgas is a London based artist and musician working with sound, performance and installation. Originally trained as an architect, he has presented exhibitions and performances with Tramway, Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Camden Art Centre and Spike Island, and he is currently a resident of Somerset House Studios in London. His written output includes essays for the Unsound:Undead collection published by Urbanomic/MIT Press and the radio documentaries Electronic India and Krishnamurti in England for BBC Radio 3. He is one half of the electronic music project Emptyset working with electroacoustic and computer music, broadcasting and spatialised sound. Emptyset has presented work at the Architecture Foundation, London, the Roberts Institute and Tate Britain’s Performing Architecture programme, performing recently with Sonic Acts and Berghain for Transmediale 2020.