Live Show - Installation
The Holiwater Project is a group of artists from the UK, India and New Zealand. The Installation-Live Show is created and staged in hybrid environments. With large cinematic projections the musicians perform a series of compositions which reflect ‘a cycle of a day in the life of water’. The raag structure creates an ambience which reflects the imagery which is improvised and interacts with the music play forming a feedback loop . Its conceptual framework reflecting an influence with that of early cinema when orchestras played to silent film.
When filmmaker Andrei Jewell sailed up India’s Ganges River in the old sailboat accompanied by a group of musicians they decided to convert their boat into a floating recording studio. Arriving in the ancient city of Varanasi, they met and recorded with world renown Sarod maestro Vikash Maharaj and his son, Tabla player Prabash amongst many others including vocalist Revati Salkakar and Deb Das and Kannai Baul. Thus inspired they formed the unique musical fusion of East meets West to make The Holiwater Project group.To give voice to the River experimental music was initially created and then staged as a multimedia show with a video installation to form a cinematic backdrop to the acoustic brilliance of the Maharaj duo and the electronic ambience of music producer Tom Bailey and James Pinker. Often described as ‘mesmerising’ The Holiwater Project depicts the life of India’s most sacred river as she flows past one of the world’s oldest living cities.
In the last 4 years The Holiwater Project has performed in various incarnations to many thousands in audiences both in India and New Zealand. In settings from Gothic cathedrals, wooded glades and desert palaces to the banks for the Ganges itself. The show continues to be a captivating experience with a global message from the heart.
“Talk about bucolic bliss at WOMAD…The Holiwater Project puts on another mesmerising set” – Listener Magazine
“The cinematic ambience encourages the listener into a world which is unhurried, meditative, yet pin point present…a show based on intense concentration, skill, and almost telepathic communication between the performing artists” – Metro Magazine