Nilotpal Das’ harmonium takes centre stage in sonorous 24-hour drone album

Continuing to dive deeper into the world of “music that doesn’t fall under any genre or description”, Nilotpal Das’ latest release comprises 28 tracks extracted from numerous hours of experimenting with his harmonium — without breaks.

The sonic output comes in the form of rhythmless drone sounds that are fairly monotonous but also possess other graspable qualities of sonorous noise, textural ambient and unconventional experimental.

Titled ‘Harmonium I’, the album ended up being a 24-hour project that includes 12 hours of both remodelled and raw recordings, which comes not without warning; Das recommends that you listen to no more than two tracks a day.

“I first got the idea of making something like this when I came across the topic of ‘albums with the longest duration’ on the internet. I was already familiar with John Cage’s ‘As Slow as Possible’ and was accustomed to playing the harmonium for a long duration so it wasn't something out of the blue for me,” he explains to Mixmag Asia.

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The raw recordings are exactly that with little to no EQ, whereas the remodelled compositions went through rigorous processing and multi-layered EQ. Apparently recording the whole project was not as challenging as the mixing, processing and exporting stages which he mentions as “painful for me mentally and physically, and painful to my computer as well, haha!”

‘Harmonium I’ was meticulously crafted within a span of two days, recorded within the confines of Das’ personal storeroom studio. The production process involved assembling a collection of eleven 60-minute performances, a 49-minute rendition and an 11-minute variation of the harmonium, specifically focusing on the resonating springs and recorded using two omnidirectional mics.

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“I want the listener to feel nothing, or feel indifferent,” says the producer, going on to add “I also want the listener to think about what it means to listen and how much should they listen,” he explained.

The titles of the release are also intentionally written as such, conveying no particular message except for pointing out the combination of keys. However, the last two tracks are quite different.

Recorded in the final stages, ‘Studio Suicide, 2020’ and ‘Studio Suicide, 2021’ stand out as they were skillfully played on the harmonium using both hands and using an 8000 RPM CPU fan. The fan was modified and equipped with high-resistance wires that were attached to the rear of the harmonium's bellow using screws.

Listen to and purchase ‘Harmonium I’ here.

Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.