‘Chorus of the Coast’ aboard cruise boat offers distinctive cultural experience to participants

Indie Sound Trail (IST) and Art Kanara Trust organised “Chorus of the Coast — The Homecoming Show” aboard the Abbakka Queen cruise boat on Phalguni (Gurupura) River in Mangaluru recently.

Offering a distinctive cultural experience, the programme brought together contemporary music, innovative food and an exhibition of photographs and archival material documenting the region’s people, places and memories. More than 150 participants joined the cruise.

Carol Pinto from Indie Sound Trail said the initiative aimed to build a cultural ecosystem that provides artists with platforms and audiences with opportunities to discover new creative expressions. “We believe cultural ecosystems grow when artists are given both a platform and an audience that is willing to discover,” she said.

Rivers have long shaped the movement, livelihoods and connections of communities in Tulunadu. The event used this setting to explore how music can engage with a region’s wider cultural life, said a release from the organisers.

Contemporary music

Led by Tulunadu-born musician Praveen Alva, Alva Kuuto joined ToddyKats, Echoes in the Dusk and Joel Austin in presenting contemporary music, drawing on different influences and perspectives. Mr. Alva said, “Tulu is not just something we inherit from the past — it is a language we can use to talk about who we are today.”

Region’s memories

Art Kanara Trust presented The Floating Archive, an exhibition of photographs and archival material in the boat’s conference hall. The display complemented the contemporary music with glimpses of the region’s past. Nemiraj Shetty from the Trust said, “An archive is not only about preserving the past. It is also about understanding what is happening around us today.” He noted that Tulunadu had been shaped by movement and exchange, and described the collaboration as an opportunity to bring archival memory into conversation with contemporary music and audiences.

The programme also featured Tulu script in its visual presentation, following World Tulu Script Day on October 10. Indie Sound Trail partnered with its official lettering partner, Solmelu Studios, whose hand-drawn Tulu-script artwork, “Songs of the Coast,” formed part of the stage design.