Arangamonline with Yessel Narasimhan
A lot of us have been keeping ourselves busy in many ways during this pandemic. Art enthusiasts suddenly found a lot of online content- videos, replays, interviews, webinars...Suddenly in the midst of it all, during the month of May -quietly surfaced an online radio – much to the delight of Carnatic Music enthusiasts.
This radio is called arangamonline (https://arangamonline.com/ and is available 24/7 on any device.
We wanted to explore this radio and the story of the person behind it- Shri Yessel Narasimhan (Saranatha Lakshmi Narasimhan –became SL- which became Yessel)- for we are aware that he is already a Carnatic music archivist. What we were not aware of though, was that he has a repository of about 5000 concerts or about 15000 hours of Carnatic music !! :)
He dons many hats- he is a technical consultant for sounds and studios and equally a guide/consultant for students/performers of Carnatic Music. He consults for some big names in the country for their studios, is involved in some serious archiving and to fans of Carnatic vocalist Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan, he is the go-to person for anything and everything, for he is present at all of his concerts ,recording the present day doyen of Carnatic classical music. Not to mention the corporate and non corporate roles he has taken up in the past.
Yessel describes himself as someone whose listening journey started in a reverse manner. Unlike most people who get drawn into classical music after a foray into fusion and light classical, he began by listening to “ heavy-duty” classical and with it, the knowledge of and taste for music evolved within him in an organic manner.
Yessel, for those who know him is never at a loss for words, so an “interview” with him is not very difficult, he willingly comes forward to provide the information any keen enthusiast would want from him. Also, as we speak to him we sense a sudden shift of focus lights from Mylapore ( which has traditionally been the Carnatic hub)to Triplicane....and we discover a lot of trivia about the place, about the technical aspects of recording/archiving and many more.
Here is how the conversation with him unfolded-On his background, his passion for Carnatic music, his role as an archivist, his association with Sangita Kalanidhi Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan , his listening sessions and now arangamonline..
Read on for many interesting anecdotes...embedded in his responses.
Tell us about how you got interested in Carnatic Music in the first place?
I have been attending live concerts since I was 3 years old. Those days, it was only the very rich who could afford gramophones and cassettes, so for some of us, live concerts was the most accessible route to Carnatic Music.
Music was always in the air- That may sound a bit of a cliché ... but since I lived and still live opposite to the Triplicane Parthasarathy temple, I grew up on a staple of temple music, mainly Nadaswaram.
You are known for constantly excavating and reminding rasikas about past masters all the time, as is evident in arangamonline. Is there a background to it?
Maybe.. I had the opportunity be closely associated with the Carnatic music performers of the 60s and 70s- Thanks to my father Shri Saranatha Gopalan who was running a Sabha called Triplicane Arts Academy.The concerts used to take place at the Hindu High School on the third floor- in a hall which has a capacity of about 4000 people. Since there were no lifts, both artists and organisers had to climb stairs.
We used to hold concerts each weekend. Amongst the artists who performed, Shri Pinakapani, Smt MLV, Shri TMT, Shri Mali, Shri MDR, Shri S Balachandar, Shri S Ramanathan and Shri S Rajam were some of them-my dad was very fond of each of their music and was quite close to all of them.
Other than this, there used to be another organisation called the Triplicane Cultural Academy- Which had a library associated with it called the Kasthuri Srinivasan Library ( In memory of the founder of the Hindu)- My father used to be in the committee of this organisation as well. This Sabha organised more of lecture demonstrations- and we as young lads ,used to be involved in details right from laying the “Jamakkaalam” to cataloguing of books in the library.
That’s how my association with the “past masters” occurred.
Do you have any specific memories of these artists you were associated with?
I remember clearly that Flute Shri Mali was in Triplicane High Road for about 10 years.-He stayed in a place opposite the Star Theatre occupying the same room/flat that Shri TN Krishnan occupied and vacated.
Mali stayed there because his flute maker stayed just behind- on Chellapillayar Koil Street- And that street is also famous for two other people who stayed there- Shri UV Swaminatha Iyer and Shri Koteeswara Iyer.
My best memories are with the legend Dr.S Ramanathan. He stayed close by-When he saw that I was a regular concert attender and spotted me at the concerts which he presided over/attended ...after about 3 months he asked me to tag along with him.
I have had the fortune moments of traveling together with him in the bus from Triplicane to Mylapore, have had coffee at Sukha Nivas with him and attended concerts along with him. I learnt many aspects of kutcheri attendance/ kutcheri appreciation from him. I’ve never seen him once leave in the middle of a concert-He always stayed till the end.
Also even at a concert where the performer did not do a great job, when he was invited to provide feedback, he had the art and the good heart to be completely honest at the same time without hurting anyone.
He sometimes sang to me to demonstrate how a piece should be/have been sung. I consider myself a very blessed child of God when I recall such moments.
You had such a close association with so many stalwarts. Did it motivate you to learn music yourself?
No , I was very clear I did not want to learn Carnatic music formally . Because I did not want to be boxed into one school or Bani. I wanted to be able to listen and appreciate all the schools and types of music. This decision helps me now in my role as an archivist as well.
Also, back then, the acknowledgement for this came from none other than Lalgudi Shri G Jayaraman- I was the chairman of the workshops committee of the YACM ( Youth Association for Classical Music, Chennai)and we had organised a three day workshop. LGJ who presided over the programme, on the third day made a comment “These days everyone wants to learn/perform. We also need people to be able to simply appreciate without learning or performing” which is what I was, exactly and I went up and told him that- And he genuinely appreciated it.
How did your recording journey start?
I started recording with the available gadgets as early as the 80s/ early 90s. We used small recorders –that would be kept directly before the main performing artist.
I first started recording the concerts in which Shri Umayalpuram K Sivaraman played- thanks to his intervention, the main artist would allow us to record.
Around 95/96 I started to digitise the collection. That was the time the various breakthroughs in technology began to rapidly occur, so with the changing times and technology, my methods of recording and preserving also changed.
What exactly do you mean when you say you digitised the collection?
In technical terms, it means using the optical drive / sound card in the PC and the associated software to digitise.
In simpler terms,it meant connecting the walkman or the CD player of “those days” to the computer- converting it into a wave format and then into an audio-CD format.
Digitising from spools is of course another story altogether- Those were the days I would come home from work, and sit almost the whole evening through the night to complete this. This was during the early 90s.
Later, with the massive growth of technology, digitising became a simpler process and today it is the digital age so it is almost child’s play.
So today,how do you go about with your collection? Do you attend kucheris like before and record everything?
We closed the Triplicane Arts Academy sometime in the 80s –Since films were becoming very popular and Sabha attendance was dwindling. So obviously after that my associations were only in the form of kucheri attendance.
And with December 1999, after attending the “ millennium concert” I retired from “ live kucheri attendance” as well...
These days, I record for select artists only. I specialise in and would like to be identified with what is called as multi track- live recording. I am not into studio recording.
What is the difference between a recorder and an archivist?
In fact there are three categories- the listener, the collector and the archivist.
The listener is the simplest- Someone who listens a lot – to one or many artists
The collector is someone who would have exhaustive collections of a single artist or maybe a couple of them.
An archivist goes beyond these. Type A will collect anything and everything and stop there. Type B would want to develop and document what he/she has collected.
This starts with the ability to catalogue the recordings, give them names and tags- a long process by itself. It starts with a base in library science ( Recalls his early association with the Kasturi Srinivasan library..)
When you convert old recordings, say for instance from spools,then you will have to adjust speed differences, ensure that the timbre of the voice is maintained when you do so...Sometimes it involves validating the shruthi and speed of the final output with an artist- to ensure everything is just fine.
Even in today’s digital age, splitting a 2GB or 4 GB kutcheri recording into files and tagging those files requires a mimimum effort of 3- 4 hours.
If the recording is to be used for publication, then it has another 3- 4 hours of work involved.
So this job entails a lot of passion and is purely a labor of love. Not to mention a keen ear for detail in sounds.
One must understand that archiving music has to be done systematically and is indispensable to provide aural examples of Paadandharams to future students, musicians, scholars and researchers alike.
What did you do with all this music before Arangam online? We know you organised some listening sessions. Tell us about it?
Everyone must be aware of Sangeethapriya. I was associated with this online platform of music sharing in 2006 and I still continue to be associated with them. With the boom of internet and the advent of youtube and so many free online platforms, we see anything and everything uploaded and shared. Not every upload was based on quality-The internet started becoming a digital dumpyard if I may call it that way.
So, I wanted to organise guided listening sessions for rasikas so they understand and identify good quality music coming from good quality recordings of course.
We started with “ Mottamadi kucheris”- Guided listening sessions at people’shomes accompanied with sweet, karam coffee. Then because of the limitations of the number of invitees, we shifted it to larger halls. This became a monthly recurrence.
For instance we organised the Smt Suguna Purushotaman memorial day. And then for the MDR remembrance day, we had invited Shri TV Gopalakrishnan- who had been an accompanist for MDR. TVG became very emotional during the session . Sometimes the snippets we get from greats during moments like these are invaluable to say the least..
What would be the primary take away for anyone attending these listening sessions?
The primary goal of the guided listening sessions was to dissect and dismantle various components of music and make them easier to understand and appreciate.
At the same time we are very conscious that we conduct the dissection only AFTER the listening. While we want to debrief on the grammar of things, we do not want the audience to compromise on the aesthetics at any cost. So after the concert is over, we have a resource person or an expert explain the nuances in the music- Audience who are interested could take notes and revisit these after going home..
Ok, so now to the topic of the day....Tell us all about Arangamonline
I often have these thoughts of what exactly am I going to do with this large a collection and how could all this work be carried forward for the use of future generations? Also, during this COVID 19 situation, it looks like the guided listening sessions cannot happen in person for some time to come.
The thought of a radio was always in mind but now it has become economically feasible and technically it just involves a click of a button.Remember Worldspace that we all enjoyed at one point and grieved over its end? These were my points of inspiration towards arangamonline..
Oh yes...We all loved Worldspace.....But now, there are so many known and unknown Carnatic radios online. How is Arangamonline going to be different?
First of all as you are aware now, the collection comes from several years of passionate hardwork. Backed with some “sound” knowledge of sound imaging/stereo imaging- So I can assure you of the quality of what you hear ....It is not exactly some random playing of music.
Secondly all the tracks have been catalogued so details of each piece along with the composer, raagam etc is on display while the music is being played- it makes it a reference material as well- and those who do not know the raagams can equally identify and listen ..
Thirdly, in line with the concept of our listening sessions, there will be a resource person presenting on kucheris with some valuable take aways. The resource person could be a performing artist, an upcoming one or anyone else who is a true resource person in the field.
Fourth, this is an exclusive “ past masters”radio- The rule is that we will not play the music of any contemporary living artist- We make it unique by ensuring the past masters perform for you in crystal clear audio. ( Every rule has an exception so we may play a contemporary artist now and then)
So, you will get to hear people like Karaikudi Shri Sambasiva Iyer- (Some people/artists were surprised that such artists were feautured),Dwaram Shri Venkatasamy naidu,Dr S Pinakapani, Shri Srirangam Gopalaratnam, Shri TK Rangachari...and so on
When and how was Arangamonline launched?
This radio was under discussion...and within the next few days I lauched it just like that on MDR rememberance day- On may 20th 2020. I believe in not waiting for perfection to deliver- so launched it as it is.
The response has been great so far- This radio is completely community driven in terms of inputs- So I receive daily feedback on what to play and not...
I hope to scale the infrastructure up by August 2020
When youngsters these days do not have much of a taste for contemporary classical musicians itself, why and how would they listen to the past masters?
Youngsters today should understand that whatever they claim is new has already been attempted and tried many decades back. Innovation is nothing but re-inventing some aspect of the past.
For example- Shri TK Rangachari as early as 1963 sang a two raga pallavi- Anandhabhairavi and Amritavarshini..
Shri S Kalyanaraman created the dwi-madhyama ragas which is considered true innovation.
Our base in Carnatic music is very strong and is available in a state to be confidently explored. For fresh ideas,you need to listen as much as possible to the old- If you don’t, simple,it will only be your own loss.
I keep telling the youngsters to replenish the Carnatic stage with krithis that were popular 6o years back and then suddenly disappeared.
Innovation is simply restructuring of what has already been discovered and forgotten- So its imperative to listen to the past masters.
How exactly are you associated with the current day Sangita Kalanidhi Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan?
For Triplicane – 3 Cs were non negotiable. Cricket, as everyone knows, Carnatic Music and Coffee.
So about 40 years ago I found someone who was a regular in both the cricket and carnatic circles. After a few instances of bumping into each other during concerts and during the Mylapore vs Triplicane cricket matches, we started getting acquainted. It then became friendship and we have been friends over these decades.
Obviously I am talking about Sanjay Subrahmanyan...
Those were 15 golden years of YACM and the camaraderie built over music was so memorable. As far as Sanjay and me are concerned, we have attended concerts, eaten together at Mylapore, were brave enough to explore IIT Madras which was a jungle at that time and where concerts just started....
Years passed and in 2005 I acquired a two track Tascam Porta Studio and did multi track recording for the first time.
In 2006, he happened to drop in when I was fiddling with the gadget and without much thought he asked me to record his concert at Bharat Kalachar the next day and thats how my mutli track live recording for concerts started.
After a break I then resumed recording for him in 2009 in his Shivaratri concert at Ratnagiriswarar temple and since then, except just one concert of another artist, I have been live recording with all my equipment only for Sanjay Subrahmanyan.
I am ever grateful to him for entrusting me with the recording of his concerts which are the products of decades of his dedication and hard work.
While I know and have interacted with almost all of his contemporaries, something exemplary about Sanjay- is his natural willingness to share his knowledge with others- A very very rare trait!!
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