RagaPhonia juxtaposes South Indian classical music with western jazz, rock and electronic music to forge a new sound.
Shuba Gunapu, Purna Prasad and Robert Edgar have been playing, recording and performing together since 2000. They compose together, sometimes starting with South Indian ragas
to which Robert adds harmonic structures, and sometimes from Robert's compositions, to which which Purna and Shuba add new rhythmic, vocal, and instrumental material.
Purna Prasad and Shuba Gunapu are founders and directors of Prabath Academy for Music and Performing Arts (www.pampans.com) in Santa Clara. Both were classically trained on their respective instruments in their native India. Purna has recorded both in India and in the United States; including work with Pandit Ravi Shankar and Vijaya Raghava Rao.
Shuba also has recorded in India--including work on "Narashimha Suprabhatha" by Dr. Balamurali Krishna--as well as in America, with RagaPhonia and Christopher Franke.
Robert Edgar (www.robertedgar.com) is a musician and digital media artist. Robert studied electronic music at Syracuse University for five years, and has produced and performed worldwide with Living Cinema (1988), Sand (or How Computers Dream About Truth in Cinema)(1994)_ and his early interactive computer work Memory Theatre One (1985).
Roger Winkelman has one of the finest collections of basses we've ever seen, and plays them all beautifully. Roger joined RagaPhonia in 2005.
We've played in different venues around the San Francisco bay area over the last six years. A high point has been our performance at the Kannadotsava festival.
Pandit Ravi Shankar, Vijaya Raghava Rao, Steve Reich, Robbie Basho, Stockhausen.
Purna Prasad (mrudangam, tabla, Handsonic)
Shuba Gunapu (vocal, veena)
Robert Edgar (guitar, vocal, synthesizer)
Roger Winkelman (bass)
It ain't easy.