What is the link between Ravi Prasad, singer,musician and composer from Kerala (South India) and Scandicus, vocalist, specialising in ancient music.

In their own way, they discover, create and re-transmit the riches of Sacred Chant from their respective traditions.

From their meeting was born the desire to walk together in order to identify what connects the notion of Sacred in the Carnatic songs of South Indian and the spiritual in the songs of the West.

These two traditions have their own musical codes. Carnatic singing is quite complex with 72 lines, it is a system based on sacred numbers. It quite subtly moves from one note to the next. Composers in the West enriched monody in the middle ages by overlaying voices, which gave rise to polyphony.

For two years, they alternated, explored, shared and exchanged from their respective sources. The intersection of these sources has helped highlight "keys" to a reconciliation of these two traditions.

The show traces this journey. Scandicus follows the path of the Cantigas, troubadours, Perotin, Dufay to meet Ravi Prasad who interprets the Carnatic songs of Purandara Dasa.

Landscapes overlap, combine and intertwine emphasising the aspect of timelessness. The last part is a composition by Ravi Prasad, a contemporary ode inspired, by East and West, by tradition and creation...

Musical Programme

Many contemporary musicians have explored and brought together these two monodic traditions, Gregorian chants and Carnatic songs from South India. We have chosen to broaden the scope of meeting where the vertical "medieval vision of the cosmos" creeps into architecture, painting and music, with the appearance of early polyphony. In the West Gothic art was gradually replaced by the Romanesque art and music of the thirteenth and fourteenth century. The musician’s creativity is inspired by the secular repertoire. Sacred music is enriched and embellished by the introduction of instruments in the liturgy as the pilgrims and singers from all over Europe share these new sounds.

This source, which Scandicus puts together with the directory of Purandara Dasa as proposed by Ravi Prasad. The "Codex Calixtinus", the "Cantigas de Santa Maria", the "Carmina Burana," the school of “Notre Dame de Paris" etc ... will be accompanied by medieval instruments and various percussion instruments that combine the tampura, kanjira, guimbarde and Ravi Prasad’s Indian flute.