As a curator, DJ, and Artistic Director of Toronto’s Music Gallery Canada’s leading centre for experimental sound and music- my work blends underground electronic culture, diasporic identity, and intuitive improvisation.
Over the past decade, I have built and supported transformative spaces in Toronto’s underground music scene, programming for large cultural institutions, small DIY collectives, and made many DIY spaces usable for the community.
As an artist and producer, I draw on the Western influences of Indian classical music, using DJing and live performance to explore memory, migration, and sonic futurism. I’ve played stages including Boiler Room, Toronto Pride, and various Canadian festivals.
Through hybrid approaches to curation, sound, and community engagement, I’m committed to exploring how experimental practices can respond to the needs of our current and future. I approach my curations through the lens and prompt of free jazz.
The esthetics of jazz demand that a musician play with complete originality, with an assertion of [their] own musical individuality…. At the same time jazz requires that musicians be able to merge their unique voices in the totalizing collective improvisations of polyphony and heterophony. The implications … are profound and more than vaguely threatening, for no political system has yet been devised with social principles which reward maximal individualism within the framework of spontaneous egalitarian interaction.
John Szwed
FUTURE RESONATES
Curator,EventProducer
Toronto
05.13.23
In collaboration with Imbue Detroit and Montreal’s MUTEK, this durational presentation explored the depths of sonic futures. Over the course of seven hours, audio and visual artists came together to create a day-long meditation dedicated to interpretations of the textural future.
Hosted in a former Buddhist temple in Toronto —its resonant wooden A-frame carrying echoes of prayer and presence—the space itself became a collaborator. What if, with greater intention, we embedded our visions of the future into its very beams?
A newly commissioned installation combining modular synthesis, water, and light to create a responsive audiovisualexperience.
Developed in collaboration with modular artist Acote and A/V artist Fezz Stenton, the work was created from the ground up for a five-day installation. From concept to execution, I was involved in every stage—including materialstesting,grantwriting,andon-siteinstallation.
Thecompletedpieceoperatedintwodistinctmodes:
1. AutoMode: Two embedded speakers within the plexiglass tank and a pair of microphones captured the sound of water, feeding it into the modular synth. The synth, in turn, triggered vibrations that agitated the water, creating a feedback loop—allowing the system to evolve autonomously.
2. PlayMode:In this interactive mode, the modular system activated the embedded speakers directly. As frequencies shifted the movement of water, the live visuals adapted in real time, creating a fully immersive, synestheticexperience. Toronto
NEEEERRRRDDDD SSSS
Curator,EventProducer
Toronto
10.11.23
As part of a festival exploring the theme of nerds/nerding out, I commissioned improvisational percussionist Germaine Liu to respond to a curatorial prompt centered on Nerds candy.
The result was “We Made This With Love”—a twopart experience combining audiovisual installation with a live performance that blended percussion, costume, and experimental choreography.
Presented as a featured night , the event drew a sold-out, multigenerational crowd, showcasing how playful yet musically difficult concepts can engage broad and diverse audiences through sound, movement, and visual storytelling.
This project was an ode to Charanjit Singh, the often-credited originator of acid house, and a meditation on digital spirituality in sound-making. Conceived and curated by me, the event brought together 10 improvisers from across generations and the Asian diaspora to collaboratively explore this theme through an improvised score.
I conceptualized the project, assembled the ensemble, and designed the framework for the performance.
Alongside the musical performance, the space was transformed into a sensory environment: a “plounge” (performance lounge) offered cozy rest areas, endless cups of tea and snacks circulated through the crowd, and live visuals were generated in real time creating a multidimensional, immersive experience.
MusicArtists:David Pstuka (electronics), Gurpreet Chana (tabla, electronics), Araz Salek (tar), Anuja Panditrao (vocals), Marilyn Yogarajah (trumpet), Nilan Perera (Guitar), Hardeep Chana (taus, harmonium), Naomi Mccaroll-Butler (winds), Jason Battacharya (drums), Peter Rahul (visuals)
IT’S NOT U IT’S ME
Curator,Organizer
An experiment in utopia, this project brought together multiple underground collectives to create larger than life raves using our collective power.
In the summer of 2016, we launched a rave series inside a contemporary art gallery—a space traditionally closed off to music and nightlife. Each event drew crowds of up to 5,000 people, marking an unprecedented moment in the city’s cultural landscape. Nothing of this scale, spirit, or ambition has been attempted since.
As the first official hire at a 25-year-old underground rave collective, I was responsible for curation, creating safer spaces, and both conceptualizing and executing large-scale events in unconventional venues across Toronto—including film studios, abandoned buildings, community centres, and parks. These events attracted audiences ranging from 600 to 10,000 people.
One of the collective’s flagship series is a summer-long beach rave. For 14 consecutive weeks, we setup and teardown parties each Sunday, for over 2,000 attendees.
