Part 9/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. If so far, I have given the impression that India is a “sonic oasis” — far removed from the cacophonies of everyday life in the West — let me pour cold water on that wishful thinking right… Continue reading Rowdies

Part 8/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. “It’s good you came,” the architect mused, his bright eyes touched with laughter. “I’ve been in contemplation for far too long.” I wished the conversation could have gone on longer. It began with great seriousness, but over… Continue reading The Hush of Long Time

Part 7/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. Pythons & Pop — Last Days in Goa Pythons and murals and pop, oh my! When I arrived in Mumbai a week ago, I wrote (with a sense of personal triumph) that while many people listen to… Continue reading Pythons & Pop

Part 6/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. Home. Even though I have never lived in India, being here feels safe to me. In the last 24 hours, I ventured out of Colaba and visited several other places in the city. Marine Drive, a strip… Continue reading Sounds of Skylines

Part 5/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. Benaulim Day trips have an interesting effect on time. They introduce you to a variety of sights and sounds which extends far beyond the parameters of a single day. For me, 2018 began serenely, on Goa’s Benaulim… Continue reading New Year’s Day(s)

Part 1/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. An account of an 8,000 mile journey. The scale of the world, when it hits you, can make you cry. It’s been less than six hours since I left Washington, and already I can see that the… Continue reading To the Stratosphere

Part 2/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. Colaba, Mumbai A chorus of crows and mynas wakes me up this morning. Perhaps I am projecting, but they sound bright-eyed. Fresh, you know. Ready to take on the world. Undaunted and unfazed by humanity’s noise and… Continue reading Of birds and cages

Part 3/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. This journal of my travels is already taking a different turn than the one I’d anticipated. I had expected to write about the masala of sounds I encounter in various places. In Colaba, for instance: The honking of taxis… Continue reading Quieter than Hearing

Part 4/13 of Travel Writings: Listening to Maharashtra and Goa (2017-18). Music & the Earth International, 2022. Available here. In Mumbai, there were sounds that I wished to hear but was unable to. I thus spent my first few days here in India writing more about silence than about music, more about the gaps in our… Continue reading Goa, first encounter

For the first three months of Music & the Earth’s existence, we kept a steady stream of notes — liner notes, if you like — on the organization’s early development. April 2017 Music and ecology surround us every day. Whether we live in a rainforest or an urban jungle, in a landlocked valley or by… Continue reading M&E’s Early Steps – Liner Notes