GLOBAL VISIONS
L.E.T.S. Support World Music
using a set of notes in ascending (arohi) and descending (avarohi) order, sometimes including prescribed alternate routes, a hierarchy of note importance, and a key phrase that shows the heart of the move- ment of the raga. The caption on an associated ragamala painting read: “Bound with a peacock’s feathers...his face is as a flower. Ele - phant-like, he joyfully wanders in the forest among the gopis. Such is Basant raga.” While based on raga, L.E.T.S. incorporates harmony, and in pas- sages follows the muse of the moment over the rules of raga. It starts
BY MATTHEW MONTFORT
Music is an important part of people’s lives and has the power to influence social change. For over 40 years as a musician, I’ve devoted my career to making music the world needs to help humanity survive the coming ecological and geopolitical challenges. Since its inception in late 1978, my band, Ancient Future , has been dedicated to the mission of world fusion music, and to promoting the concept with live concerts and recordings. We want world fusion music, a process by which new music is created based on the world’s great musical tradi -
with an alap , an introductory melodic impro- visation that shows how the raga moves. Once the alap comes to a conclusion, the gat , or main theme, is introduced in the tala , or rhythmic cycle, in this case keharwa , an eight beat cy- cle. The ending of Lustful Elephants Trumpet Spring features a tihai , a rhythmic pattern re- peated three times in succession that is com- monly used in North Indian classical music to create a cadence. L.E.T.S. quickly became a part of Ancient Future’s live repertoire, and an acoustic stu - dio version of the composition finally went into production in 2020 as part of our ongo - ing fan-funded recording project, the Archive of Future Ancient Recordings, which now in- cludes more than ninety minutes of music available to supporters. Scores and practice tracks from the studio version were shared in rehearsal for our first virtual concert, where it became the best live version of the piece yet.
tions, to become a movement. We want world fusion music to be supported by the industry so artists can be fairly compensated, and listeners have access to discover and enjoy this glob- al-inspired music. Over the years, Ancient Future has expand- ed its musical vision through collaborations with noted masters of various world music tra- ditions who are now an integral part of what is today more than just a band. Ancient Future has grown to become a collective of more than thirty performers from around the world with over a dozen small ensembles within it, includ - ing artists such as Pandit Habib Khan (Indian sitar), Georges Lammam (Arabic violin), and Shenshen Zhang (Chinese pipa virtuoso) to name a few. Naturally, as performers, we were affect - ed by the global pandemic, which caused the cancellation of our entire 2020 concert season. And like so many of our fellow live musical art-
ists during this time, we turned to creative solutions, both to keep the music alive, and to respond to our Ancient Future Times subscribers asking for virtual concerts during the pandemic and beyond. A new series entitled ‘Alternate Reality Concerts from the Ancient Future’ was created. I was the inaugural performer with a solo scalloped fretboard guitar concert on my birthday, February 12, 2021. Exactly four months later, on June 12, 2021, Ancient Future performed as an ensemble for the first time since 2019, thanks to Jhankar, an Indian arts organization in Cincinnati. They came forth to sponsor a streaming concert fea- turing a trio program consisting of me on scalloped fretboard guitar,
Support Streaming World Music One of the main goals of the promotion of this first live Ancient Future release is to help expand the reach of world fusion music on streaming sites where people are increasingly discovering and con- suming new music and artists. As a member of the Executive Board of the Artist Rights Alliance, we advocate for fair compensation for art- ists in the digital age. The economics of free streaming has had a del- eterious effect on the ability of musicians to support themselves from their creations. A recent quarterly statement from our own distributor reported only $100 in income from 2 million ad supported streams of an Ancient Future track. While streams to paid subscribers pay out a little more, it’s still a fraction of a cent per stream even in the best-case scenario.
Indian tabla master Aditya Kalyanpur, and keyboard wizard Frank Martin. The series is an ongoing project, and will continue as scheduling allows and funding is raised. Lustful Elephants Trumpet Spring, or L.E.T.S., dropped on Elephant Apprecia- tion Day, September 22, 2022, and is the first official audio/video release from the virtual concert series. The music came to me in a dream in the early 2000’s after studying Rag Basant, a springtime raga that captures the feeling of separated lovers longing to unite. I woke up in the middle of the night dreaming of a melody that conjures elephants in mating season. I wrote down the music and went back to sleep. When I played through the piece the next morning, I was intrigued by how the music captured the spirit of ele- phants. It begins with a low riff that de - picts an elephant’s legs, and then moves to a jump from low to high like an elephant trumpeting in excitement. A raga is a melodic recipe for a mood. Raga could be described as a “super scale”
To receive meaningful income under the current system, an artist, including a world music artist, either needs millions of streams daily, or for their music to be on the popular playlists featuring music for a relaxing activity such as yoga or medita- tion, as many paid subscribers sign up to avoid being distracted by ads during their daily practice. Since many of these special- ty playlists are used as background music, most listeners have no idea who created the music. It’s important that world fusion music be encouraged to grow according to the muse rather than the demands of ac- companying a specific activity. As a world music artist, I’m also con - cerned that today’s streaming algorithms have a polarizing effect that keeps listen - ers in tiny genre boxes by suggesting music that sounds like the music they already lis- ten to. This is counter to the goal of world fusion, which seeks to open people up to continued on page 37
PATHWAYS—Spring 23—15
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