Music, and by extension, artistic expression, is the language ingrained within our very existential fabric. It is the one common factor that bridges human beings across generations in time as well as across physical geographical distances. It doesn’t take a connoisseur to describe the emotions Beethoven’s symphonies evoke, or an art critic to recognize the disquieting nature of The Scream by Edvard Munch. We are all connected as one, in that, we possess the ability to enjoy art in any form we find pleasing to our senses ; it is a characteristic intrinsic to what makes us truly human.
It is in the endeavor to explore this wondrous connection that Stijn De Laat and Rowan Stroop, under the banner of Project Passionfruit, set out on a journey across continents to record musicians playing their instruments and compile them into single tracks, thus literally connecting them!
Stijn, a graphic designer by profession from Breda, Netherlands is out on the journey of a lifetime, touring Australia, Indonesia, India and Uganda among other countries with his partner, Rowan, who’s a former sales adviser ,tennis player and a surfer who’s also from Netherlands.
A saxophonist and rapper himself, Stijn records the different artists they meet on their travels, occasionally recording himself with them and compiles the various instrumental and vocal pieces into one track. He then mixes, masters and produces it to create a single piece of music that was born out of independent recordings from artists who’ve never met each other.
Their travels, and Rowan’s interest in surfing brought them to Manipal in the first week of October. They stayed with Ishita Malaviya (who happens to be India’s first female professional surfer, by the way!) and Tushar of the Shaka Surf Club in Manipal. Stijn also performed at The School of Life Sciences’ fest, High Voltage.
Abhyu Ghimire and I had a chance to record with Passionfruit after their brief chat with MTTN’s Ananya Panda and myself, during which they also told us of their stay in Australia, their experience with the aboriginal folks and their attempts to communicate with the locals in their language that almost sounded like English, but with a copious amount of ‘mate’s and a gazillion other indigenous endearing expletives thrown into the linguistic blend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KYqDgF447A
After Manipal, they headed to Hampi and eventually to Goa, which was their last stop in India, following which they travelled to Uganda, where they recorded with African musicians and also helped out and spent time with two charity organizations which look after orphaned, impoverished children and give them the education they need in order to achieve their dreams. Here’s a video documenting the harrowing conditions of the underprivileged children in Kampala, Uganda, and El Shaddai Children’s Home’s efforts to alleviate their suffering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8gioAvr0SI
Their website will be up on the 1st of February, where they will be uploading the tracks (the Fruits of their Passion. Get it?) and other vlog and blog entries, including interviews with the artists they’ve recorded with, which at this point is well over a hundred sprawled across the globe. Their visit to Manipal was a very joyous experience for those of us who were lucky enough to run into them and we earnestly look forward to the next time they come to Manipal, indubitably on a higher branch of their Passionfruit tree.
…yes, I should stop making puns.
Head over to their Facebook page to know more about them and keep yourself updated about their fascinating ventures. Say hi to them on our behalf!
https://www.facebook.com/projectpassionfruit/
Also, make sure you subscribe to their YouTube Channel for several other music videos and other interesting content – https://goo.gl/Pq4qQQ
– Rahul Basu for MTTN
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