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Exploring #SuperSalt by Salt Arts, coming this December

By Maheen Sabeeh
Wed, 11, 18

A multiple-act production, it will feature genres such as rock, EDM, folk and much more.

December, which will conclude this bizarre year, feels like it’ll be a big month for live music. For one thing, Junoon is reuniting. Red Bull Sound Clash will see Ali Azmat defend rock versus Strings who will defend pop on December 8 at Karachi Gymkhana with tickets available online at www.bookme.pk as well as the venue.

Islamabad is getting ready to welcome a festival that will feature some artists from this year’s Mad Decent Block Party such as Chrome Sparks, Adil Omar, Talal Qureshi, who also form SNKM, and many others.

But beyond reunions and the big guns of music turning up the heat, the live show we’re most curious about is #SuperSalt, which is being presented by Salt Arts, an arts production company where “collaboration reigns supreme” and who have proven their credibility on more than a few occasions.

Scheduled to take place on December 15, 2018 at Karachi Arts Council, it will offer music fans multiple genres of music and, as a Salt Arts member told Instep, is in many ways a show of gratitude to Karachi residents, who have turned up to Salt Arts shows.

Speaking to Instep, Salt Arts further noted, “#SuperSalt is basically this entity that Salt Arts has been trying to put together. It is about conceptually what the organizers are in the mood for. People often say only big acts make it to big stage(s). And one feels that in order to pull off something large for the public, one has to compromise on artistic programming and really focus on popular acts, et al.”

Salt Arts added: “There are various things happening here; we’re closing our season with a #SuperSalt line-up. It doesn’t mean only those acts that have been in the season so far; there will be some new entrants but it is also in the interest of making audiences connect with each other – that’s the conceptual angle to it. Live audiences, inspired audiences make the project rich. We’re very serious about audience development, how we engage with each other and we do not want to limit it to one act. It is the first time we’re doing a multi-act kind of show. We’re releasing it one by one, hoping to get people excited. It will be multi-genre. We’ve been building up to it. We’ve done premium shows, there’s Layla’s international show. But multi-genre in SuperSalt is about exploring genres and what people want to listen to. There will be rock, EDM folk, so that’s the direction. It’s not at all like a festival. It’s a multi-act live performance. And we’ve put the tickets out there and you’ll see a lot of content coming out about artists who are participating. It’s an independent production. And we want the public to come out and enjoy an evening of music.”

Given just how high a premium Salt Arts puts on aesthetics as well as designing live shows while keeping in mind the artist playing, it’ll be very interesting to see SuperSalt.

In the meantime, there is the Pepsi Tour for which Salt Arts have partnered with Pepsi and though the Lahore show was postponed, it is just for now. “It’s a logistical problem, primarily,” said Salt Arts to Instep. However, since the show has not been cancelled but simply postponed, Lahore can take a sigh of relief and expect a better show, the kind Karachi has come to expect of Salt Arts production.

In between there is the show with international artist, Layla, with home boy Rudoh (co-founder of net label Forever South, a music producer, audio engineer and member of the iconic music group Mole) opening - coming up from Salt Arts later next month (December 1). Layla Kardan will be joined by a fantastic lineup; her Karachi Ensemble will feature Rakae Rehman Jamil on Electric Sitar, Aziz Kazi on percussion and Dilawar Husain on guitar.

-Picture courtesy: Salt Arts