SAMSARA

Samsara comes from the traditional Sanskrit word used to denote the cycle of birth, life, death, and reincarnation. Within the KarmetiK Machine Orchestra, Samsara is our own story of rebirth as told by the musical interpretations of several traditional Indian fables; this story premiered at REDCAT in the Walt Disney Concert Hall for two nights on April 12th and 13th, 2012.

Hindu philosophy embraces the concept of reincarnation as a way to learn, grow, and evolve. Samsara pulls ancient Sanskrit fables from the Panchatantra which reflect on classic dilemmas of morality. These fables often use a mixture of humans and animals in each story. Samsara is uniquely positioned to use the inventions of the Machine Orchestra to perform these stories in a novel, unconventional way.

Culture, society, time, and especially ingenuity are all core traits in the evolution of music. With Samsara, old stories can be embraced in a new format combining music, dance, theatre, and technology. The boundaries of these traditional fables will be extended with some of the most important advancements of the 21st century: robotics in the form of electromechanical musical instruments. At present, Samsara is the result of 14 months of work with 10 humans and 10 musical robots working to bring the fables into our modern age. Speakers, robots, dancers and live musicians will surround and immerse the audience to create an environment where these stories are told.

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