Nils Bubandt is also a participant in the research project Java-Futurism. Bubandt is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Aarhus University, Denmark. He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork on politics, witchcraft, and magic in Indonesia since 1991.

His current research interests revolve around conspiracy theory, climate change, environmental disruption, and multi-species ethnography.

Kristofer Svensson is a composer and kacapi musician whose work is situated in a context in which artistic, contemplative, and meditative practices merge.

By tuning intervals in Just Intonation–a characteristic feature of all their music–and focusing on the emergence of tones from indeterminacy, the aperture and transparency of sound as well as the equanimous ground of emptiness from which sounds arise are thematized.

A recording of Svensson's suite for solo kacapi, ‘Andra Segel’, was released in 2020 on the kuyin label, and a trio album, ‘For a lemon tree’, with Maya Bennardo and Erik Blennow Calälv is forthcoming on the Another Timbre label.

Svensson’s compositions have been performed by soloists and groups such as Contemporaneous, Quatuor Bozzini, andPlay, Mats Persson & Kristine Scholz, Miyama McQueen-Tokita, Norbotten NEO, the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and their music has been performed at festivals such as MATA (US), Frequency Festival (US), and Edition Festival for Other Music (SE). Texts gathering Svensson's thoughts on the relationship between Buddhism and music can be found on intimatingemptiness.blogspot.com

Uday Bhawalkar is among the foremost Dhrupad vocalists and has been a strong force in its growing recognition, popularity and resurgence, worldwide. Uday believes that when immersed in the note and raga, the self disappears and music takes on its own existence; the principle of ‘darshan’ in Indian philosophy.

Dhrupad is one of the oldest forms of North Indian classical music and Uday maintains its majesty and subtle nuance. Dhrupad is a living and evolving classical music tradition in which Uday has developed a unique style deeply embedded in raga, ras and bhaav.

Uday spent over 12 years studying and living in the traditional guru-shishya parampara with Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar (Vocal) and Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar (Rudra-Veena), the towering pillars of the Dhrupad tradition. During this period there was a simple and complete concentration on the music itself. This intimate relationship, in which the Ustads willingly gave their inner secrets along with Uday’s devotion, brought him to a deep sense of completeness and wholeness.

An inspiring, significant moment in this period was when Ustad Nasir Aminuddin Dagar, the eldest of the Dagar family, upon first hearing Uday’s performance in 1987, blessed him with a gold medal.

Uday has an engaging style and is able to reach out and communicate with audiences of all backgrounds. Since his first performance at Bhopal in 1985, Uday has performed in a number of prestigious festivals and events in India and abroad.

In the music of Catherine Lamb (b. 1982, Olympia, Washington USA), the mathematics of harmony are explored through the physicality of the material world. Lamb gives voice to crystalline structures of the harmonic series through subtleties of friction, pressure, breath, and bow changes that shape how the idealized harmonies speak.

Lamb is one of the most celebrated and in-demand composers of her generation. Her work has been commissioned by premiere new music ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Dedalus, and Ensemble Musikfabrik. Her writings and recordings are published in KunstMusik, Open Space Magazine, New World Records, Another Timbre, Other Minds, Sound American, and Sacred Realism.

www.sacredrealism.org