Jessica Kilbane

Monsoonsiren’s Nathan Menon can’t do anything without a healthy dose of melancholy. Two years after he first showed up on our radar, 20-year-old Menon who is now signed to Berlin-based label Project Mooncircle, has just launched Falstrati, a five-track release which is as much a departure from post-millennial dance music culture as it is a study of his fragmented individuality. Says Menon, “It’s a war against myself.

It could be argued that electronÂica began with the groaning syntheÂsizers of Kraftwerk and will end with the sonic experimentation of Jon Hopkins. Over the last decade, the 35- year old producer, who began his career as a keyboardist in English synthpop artÂist Imogen Heap’s backing band and conÂsiders influential producer Brian Eno to be his mentor, has developed an inimitaÂble style that combines both organic and programmed sounds.

When he visited Leh for the first time last year, it occurred to electronica producer Sarvesh Shrivastava that the province of Ladakh was “one of the most inspiring environments for producing music.” The Mumbai-based artist, who performs under the alias Sickflip, spent the next year planning and conceptualizing an experimental audio-visual undertaking called The Ladakh Project, with friends and long time collaborators from photography collective The Outbox Project.