UK Producer Krunal Krumpavat on Blend, music technology, sufism and Rumi.
Inspired by Rumi and constraint, Krunal created a winning track for The Broken Orchestra remix competition — claiming third prize and a spot on Suites for A Broken Orchestra
You’ve said that studying ‘Electrical Engineering’ in college led to an interest in music technology. That doesn’t happen to every engineering student… Can you talk a little about what happened to make you interested in music at that time?
In my second year at university I was able to take a module in Music Technology which was my entry point into the world of DAWs and producing tracks. In the same year, I worked on a group project entitled ‘A History of Electronic Music’, where we looked at how electronics was utilized in music from the 20th century onwards. We covered instruments like the theremin, Hammond organ and synthesizer to more recent developments in MIDI technology and sampling. In later years, I attended a couple of sound and music computing summer schools and conferences. All of this contributed to furthering my interest in music. Overall it was very interesting to see how the technical stuff I was learning about enabled a lot of creative musical possibilities.
Do you think your technical background affects your approach to music production?
It’s hard to say. I enjoy exploring what kind of musical tools or devices I can create with Max for Live and Arduino — and for this I feel my technical background can be useful. So far this hasn’t had any significant influence on the music I produce — although this is always subject to change. Ultimately I feel the technical stuff is always a means to an end rather than the goal itself when it comes to producing music.
How did you hear about the Broken Orchestra Project and what interested you about it enough to create a song?
Via blend.io. It’s a platform which often features remix competitions and encourages collaborations. I must confess the Broken Orchestra Project is the first competition where I have actually ended up finishing and submitting a finalised track. I was captivated by the whole spirit of the project, and loved the idea of taking something that would otherwise be discarded and finding creative ways to give it a new lease of life.
Can you describe a bit about how you went about selecting the samples you wanted to use and constructing your track?
The inspiration for the whole track was Rumi’s poem itself — which in turn guided the sample selection and structure. Rumi was a Sufi poet, and so for inspiration I listened to a lot of Sufi music. I really liked the intricate booming hand drum patterns I heard and so I decided to try and emulate something similar to a ‘Masmoudi’ drum pattern, by layering tiny snippets of different percussive elements together. Sufi music also features a lot of flute and reed sounds so I spent quite some time trying to find which of the provided woodwind samples could work together and provide some kind of melody.
The words of the poem also helped me structure how the mood should evolve and what elements should be included when. I found that the autoharp samples provided a very nice musical representation of certain lines of the poem. By the end, I had loosened up on the need for the track to sound like traditional Sufi music, and felt comfortable leaving it in the ‘broken’ genre.
When did you first read Rumi’s Poetry and why did you choose to include his words in your song?
A few weeks prior to reading about the Broken Orchestra project, I took home a book of Rumi poems belonging to my brother-in-law. I would usually read a couple of the poems everyday and was often blown away by how powerful they could be. The way he is able to express his love for what is divine and true is really magical.
After reading about the remix contest I wanted to participate but lacked inspiration for a track. I felt compelled to look in my book of Rumi poems and there I came across one called ‘Where Everything is Music’. It seemed perfect to use because the meaning of the words worked on different levels and somehow captured the spirit of the Broken Orchestra project too.
What do you think you learned creating your track for Broken Orchestra?
The value of constraints. Being restricted to working solely with the Broken Orchestra samples forced me to continuously listen with an open mindset in order to determine how I could make best use of what had been provided. Many sounds I heard on first listen seemed completely unusable, but with time and a change in perspective, I grew to love a lot of the unusual sounds and found use for samples which I would never normally have envisaged using.
I’d say I probably learnt quite a bit more about sound design as well, especially when trying to craft the drum sounds. It’s normally straightforward to pick out drum sounds from various sample libraries, but in this case I was forced to really hone in and craft my own ‘from scratch’.
What’s your next musical or recording project?
I’m currently working on a Max for Live device which will allow me to use a Playstation 4 controller as some kind of audio effects device for use in Ableton Live. I’m still working on the functionality, but if it’s any good I’ll make it available for wider use.
