23 Jul 2025
Rohith Sakthy : "While ANTARA’s format is promising, it isn’t without challenges. The meditative nature of the events, rooted in Indian classical music, may benefit from more contextual framing for newer audiences"
At The Arcade, Sonic Threads presented a transcendent evening of music where East met West in quiet resonance. The acclaimed duo—composer-vocalist Supriya Nagarajan and harpist Lucy Nolan—blended Indian classical traditions with Western classical and free improvisation. Meditative harp lines, electronic textures, and Nagarajan’s ethereal vocals created a soundscape influenced by the spiritual explorations of Alice Coltrane.
But the evening’s significance extended beyond the sonic. Notably, the presence of Rohith Sakthy, founder of Project ANTARA, deepened the event’s emotional and conceptual arc. ANTARA is an emerging arts initiative that blends Indian classical music with guided meditation and reflective listening. Developed as a response to the growing interest in arts-led approaches to wellbeing, it offers curated raga-based performances in contemplative settings. The ethos of healing through sound, central to ANTARA, subtly infused the event, transforming it into an experience as much as a performance.