Orakel: Roshni Samlal + Kane Mathis

Spiral Music presents acoustic music every Wednesday evening at the base of the Museum’s spiral staircase. Artists who specialize in music from the Himalayas and South Asia are invited to forge a connection between their music and the art in the galleries.

Orakel is an electro-acoustic project of kora/oud player Kane Mathis and tabla player Roshni Samlal, who began their collaboration with Brooklyn Raga Massive. Using electronic compositional elements of sound design, field recordings, and drones, they create a new context for traditional elements of Indian classical percussion and kora repertoire.

This performance will be a set of their acoustic music that explores the traditional vocabulary of each instrument. Both kora and tabla traditions contain philosophies of improvising within rhythmic structures; this performance explores the ways in which each tradition’s canon is complementary to the other’s.

About the Musicians

Roshni Samlal (tabla) is a New York”“based tabla player who hails from the West Indies, where she was initiated into the ancient tradition of Indian classical music by her vocalist father. She has continued her tutelage in the Benares style of tabla playing under Shri Tapan Modak and is currently a student of the epic Farukhbad exponent, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee. While her passion is Indian classical tabla, she has played folk, jazz, and other genres. Samlal has performed at notable local venues such as Pianos, The Knitting Factory, The Bitter End, The Shrine, and Tea Lounge.

Kane Mathis (kora) began making trips to The Gambia, Africa, in 1996 to live with a family of hereditary musicians studying primarily with Malamini Jobarteh. Mathis holds a diploma from the Tiramang Traditional Music School in The Gambia and has performed on the country’s national television and radio. In 2011 Mathis became the first non-African to be endorsed by the Gambian National Center for Arts and Culture. He has also studied at Istanbul’s I.T.U. conservatory before a five- year apprenticeship with oud virtuoso Münir Beken. He is a 2010 Earshot Jazz album of the year winner and a recipient of the 2012 Chamber Music America grant.