Vindya (GB)

Vinthya Perinpanathan (b. 1998, Emmen) is an interdisciplinary artist who in her PhD combines the Sinhalese and Tamil music traditions of her heritage in the contemporary European context of her musical upbringing. She also performs under the alias ‘Vindya’, DJing and producing dark, fast and groove-driven techno.

Vinthya began her doctoral compositional practice with a keen focus on bringing Sri Lankan music to European concert halls to expose Western audiences to sounds they might not have otherwise been familiar with. This is her intended contribution as a composer to the deconstruction of Eurocentric ideas of non-‘Western’ music.

There is a satisfying parallel to be drawn between the ancient, ritualistic music from Vinthya’s heritage, and the techno sub-genre within which Vindya has been operating for the last few years. Both are highly repetitive, richly percussive, and deeply hypnotic. They are both also celebratory, participatory, and they blur the line between performer and audience.

Vinthya's cross-cultural compositions have been performed internationally. Most notably, her string quartet ‘Flight UL505’ has recently been performed across numerous concert halls throughout Europe. As an electronic musician, her current project intertwines the oral tradition of konnakol with her techno sound through both performing with a live vocalist, and through sampling that sound in her productions. And as the new academic year approaches, so do new creative ventures. She recently, for example, combined her first musical love, the violin, with her work as an electronic musician when she brought the instrument that started it all with her into the booth.