KARACHI: The concert ‘Voice and Percussion’, organised by the Goethe-Institut in their courtyard here on Wednesday evening, was a fusion of tunes, rhythm and melody.

Electronic dance music beats met jazz vibes with German guests Magnus Dauner’s rhythm and Kilian Sladek’s powerful vocals. Although at first there were just the duo, the former on drums and the later, a jazz vocalist, composer and lyricist, on vocals, they surely sounded like a huge orchestra and choir.

Dauner could make his drums do anything. Sometimes they made heartbeat sounds, sometimes the soothing ring of wind chimes. The drums would also light up like lightning. Sladek, too, added to the music with vocals, high pitch and low pitch and the question of who is the bigger star among the two, the vocalist or the drummer crossed the mind.

While one weighed the options, Dauner pulled out the bongo to sound war beats. Then he was back to his bass and snare drums and cymbals. There was a constant competition going on between the drummer and the vocalist. And in his frustration Sladek would sometimes be found shrieking away like a wild boy in the jungle. To drown his cries, Dauner only had to bring out his drumsticks and the beats he played would be enhanced by claps from the audience adding to the rhythm while the singer made sounds like a panting dog.

There were also instances where the expertise of the musician and singer made you feel like you were leaving them behind in the distance. And then you felt like closing your eyes and imagining a butterfly, floating about over a field of pretty flowers in the mild breeze. This was accompanied with the pitter-patter of raindrops and the chirping of birds.

You open your eyes again to realise that the vocalist also has something before him. Is it a disc jockey’s turntable? But just to take the attention away from him again there is the drummer. This time he is making his drums make sounds of bubbling, clicking and bottles opening.

Sladek is back, stealing his friend’s thunder by making sounds of animals having a party in the jungle as Dauner brings out rattles and shakers.

Two local counterparts join in the action — Waqas Gulab on tabla and Ahsan Bari on vocals. The more the merrier. Suddenly there is a lot of dhin dhinak dhin and tara ra ra, too. And just when one felt an absence of a female voice in this blend, the Sladek fulfilled that need, too.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2023