Come June 16 and the Indian Music Experience (IME) in JP Nagar will have an innovative demonstration by Vishnu Ramprasad at 11 am. Vishnu, a guitarist, composer, vocalist and percussionist, will show off his new creation, ‘Navtar’, which he claims, can serve the musical sensibilities effectively brought out in both fret and fret-less instruments and is conducive to Indian melodies too. “It looks like a traditional guitar and the combo of melody is strikingly original offering a micro-tonal, baseline ranges required for classical explorations and Arabic maqams,” says Vishnu, who has now shifted base to Bengaluru from Chennai.
Son of vocalist TV Ramprasadh and Bharatanatya dancer Indira Kadambi, Vishnu studied music under stalwarts like Russian Jazz guitarist and composer Denis Stern, guitarist Neil Mukherjee from Kolkata and Guitar Prasanna, apart from his father and Khanjira expert BS Purushotham. The young musician, with a fluency of Indian classical and Western harmonic melodies on his guitar, is also into cross-cultural explorations within the realm of Carnatic and Jazz.
He is also a Grade 8 distinction holder in Western classical guitar from the Trinity College, London. The Karnataka Rajyotsava Awardee has played the guitar for numerous Tamil and Kannada films too, apart from releasing his own independent albums ( www.vishnur music.com ).
Speaking about his passion to create ‘Navtar,’ Vishnu says it is important for an artiste to delve deep into an art form. “I felt I should go beyond the fretted guitar/mandolin and sculpt a new one that offers a richer microtonal/shruti range required for nuanced renderings of classical forms, it could even be Indian classical or the Arabic maqams,” he shares and adds, “an infinite micro-tonal range of notes for melodies as well as finite tempered notes for harmonies can be heard in Navtar.”
The idea of ‘Navtar’ was on his mind for a few years. “I got a prototype of it in 2016, and after years of ideating, working and refining, I laid hands on a near-completed one in 2017, but it took me another six months to familiarise myself with the design because of its unusually large size and width compared to a guitar. After I finish refining the design of Navtar, it will be an honour to have it housed permanently at IME,” dreams Vishnu.
‘Navtar’ was made by Luthier Erisa Neogy at Auroville in Pondicherry.
“This project was definitely a sizeable investment of time, energy and money, right from the design, building process, choice of imported woods... The moment I held it in my hands, I felt a rewarding experience, something I can leave behind to society that has given me so much,” shares Vishnu.
Vishnu has showcased his creation over the last year extensively with musicians across India and global platforms.
“I have played the ‘Navtar’ live as part of my band — Vishnu R Collective — and offered recordings for films. I did a performance and teaching tour in the US in 2018, and a music video demonstrating the capacity of ‘Navtar’ with Lukas Gasser, a drummer and multi-instrumentalist from Switzerland,” says Vishnu, who is currently working on an album that has music composed exclusively for the ‘Navtar.’
NOTE THIS
* As compared with a classical guitar, Navtar has nine strings (hence the name Nav-tar (It also means ‘unique’ in Sanskrit), six of which are fretted and tuned like a guitar, with three additional play strings on a fretless board, designed and tuned differently to suit Indian Classical music.
* The unifying effect of the sound created is best described as a combination of a sarod, sitar and a guitar, says Vishnu Ramprasad.
