NEW SOUNDS IN THE HAVELI

Indo-French experimental duo Pen Pal talks about their musical journey and the Delhi gig at the first edition of Music In The Haveli’, to be held today

- PRIYAMVADA RANA

FOR artists, inspiration can come from anywhere. When Pen Pal, a two-member Indo-French duo, comprising musicians Sharad Joshi from Delhi and Louise Calzada from Paris, exchanged a photograph in 2022, it marked the beginning of their musical correspondence. “As we were in different countries, it felt necessary for us to invent a process to compose together. I sent a picture of a doll-house on fire, with someone looking at it burning,” shares Calzada as Joshi chimes in, “I shared a picture of a friend where her face was zoomed into, not fully visible but a lot of character is visible through her eyes. The idea was to create anything”. This led them to create the song ‘La Potrait’ in 2023.

The fact that they were exchanging “musical letters” led them to name the band Pen Pal. They are currently working on their first LP consisting of songs that combine French and Hindi music culture both in lyrics and a poetic use of images to be performed in Delhi today as part of the first edition of ‘Music In The Haveli’ at the Kathika Cultural Centre.

Meet the pals