In Pictures: Indian electronic pioneers from the ’60s & ’70s

Shots from the studio at Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design.

Researching and knowing your history is a quintessential part of being an electronic music enthusiast. Understanding the difference between sub-genres, being able to trace the roots of samples and motifs, and building upon the progress of others are all tools that stem from having a grounded knowledge of electronic’s roots and pioneers.

Read more: Discovering electronic pioneer Mort Garson

Often, however, those in history with the loudest voices float to the foreground and obfuscate other trailblazers. Thankfully, music historians, researchers and reissue labels are trying to fill the gaps. That’s where The NID Tapes comes in.

Recently released on The state51 Conspiracy, The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969–1972 is an extraordinary showcase of early experimentation in India’s first electronic music studio. Highlighting previously unheard works from Indian composers Gita Sarabhai, I.S. Mathur, Atul Desai, S.C. Shama and Jinraj Joshipura, the compilation illustrates the technological and artistic exploration of four years at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, during the period following India’s independence.

Using a Moog modular system and tape machine, set up by New York composer David Tudor in 1969 (just five years after the first Moog), the NID students and academics developed a free-moving, avant-garde approach. Moving between pure academic experimentation and more familiar sounds–not dissimilar from early techno–they created something purely new. Joshipura, the sole living member of the group, explained that he was “thinking about creating music that feels outside anything, that stands outside history.”

Upon repeat visits to Ahmedabad to learn about India’s electronic history, artist and musician Paul Purgas (of duo Emptyset) discovered an archive of the work created at the NID. He set about restoring, digitising and mastering the collection–a decision that led to the BBC radio documentary Electronic India and, ultimately, The NID Tapes compilation.

As well as providing listeners with radical sounds from a scene unobserved, The NID Tapes is a welcomed contravention of the Eurocentrism so often found in conversations about dance music’s origins. It’s a testimony to the explorative vision of post-colonial artists and evidence of how synthesis democratised music creation for anyone with a sense of curiosity and access to a synthesizer.

Thankfully, for a release so loaded with cultural context, The NID Tapes is soon to be accompanied by a book. Subcontinental Synthesis: Electronic Music at the National Institute of Design, India 1969–1972 explores the history of the NID studio through essays reflecting upon post-independence India, experimental design, pedagogical approaches, Western ideological soft power and more.

Ahead of the book’s release via Strange Attractor Press this November, we look at some shots of the NID studio, Purgas’ digitisation process and subsequent sharing of the work.

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Sound recording at the NID studio circa 1969

Sound recording at the NID studio circa 1969

Robert Moog and team with the NID Moog crated for transit to India 1969

David Tudor and Gita Sarabhai in Ahmedabad, Autumn 1969

Composers Atul Desai and I.S. Mathur working with the Moog synthesizer, circa 1970

David Tudor teaching classes at the National Institute of Design, Autumn 1969

David Tudor teaching classes at the National Institute of Design, Autumn 1969.

Paul Purgas digitising tapes at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Paul Purgas digitising tapes at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

Paul Purgas, New Music Biennial, Southbank Centre, London 2022

We Found Our Own Reality, Berlin 2023

We Found Our Own Reality installation view, Tramway, Glasgow 2021

We Found Our Own Reality Installation view, Berlin 2023

Subcontinental Synthesis: Electronic Music at the National Institute of Design, India 1969–1972 comes out on November 7. Pre-order it now.