The NID Tapes: Electronic Music From India 1969-1972

2024 repress

Beautifully made double vinyl LP of this unique and important release featuring the earliest electronic music ever made in India. The black and white sleeve and inners feature archive photos of the composers at the NID and comes within a poly outer printed on both sides. The first 3 sides contain the music, the 4th features an etching created by Shreya Aurora, a recent graduate from the National Institute of Design where these recordings were created 60 years ago.
The NID Tapes’ presents a collection of early Indian electronic music uncovered at the archives of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. Recorded between 1969-1972 the compilation chronicles electronic works from the previously unknown Indian composers Gita Sarabhai, I.S. Mathur, Atul Desai, S.C. Sharma and Jinraj Joshipura who worked at the nation’s first electronic music studio founded at the NID during the utopian years following India’s independence – a radical period of visionary experimentation and artistic free-thought.
The studio was founded with support from the New York composer David Tudor who personally set up a Moog modular system and tape machine in the autumn of 1969, and The NID Tapes also includes an excerpt from Tudor’s work discovered amongst the collection of tapes. The release developed from a long-term research project by the British artist and electronic musician Paul Purgas who travelled to Ahmedabad over many years to explore the origins of electronic music in India. This resulted in the discovery of the electronic music archive at the NID and its eventual restoration and digitising, which featured in the acclaimed BBC radio documentary Electronic India.