Power of Power: Electronic music turning lights on for secondary school in Udaipur, India

 

One of the majestic things about computer music is that it levels the playing field for musicians. Anyone with electricity, a laptop, software, and decent headphones can be a producer, no matter who you are or what corner of the world you come from. As music educators in Los Angeles, basic things like electricity or wifi are easy to take for granted. We’ve grown accustomed to and expecting of these technologies. The sad reality for classrooms in many parts of the world, though, is little or no access to bare necessities like electricity. Imagine, a classroom without electricity. The possibilities realized through electricity are innumerable, the possibilities lost in its absence are unfathomable.

So what we have our eyes and ears on right now is the Power of Power campaign which is using electronic music to literally turn the lights on at a secondary school in India.

The goal of Power of Power is to improve educational environments in impoverished communities through electronic music. The first school they have their eyes on helping is the Government Secondary School Tulsidas Ki Saray in Udaipur, India. This particular school has over 276 students and 11 classrooms without any electricity. Imagine trying to learn with no lights or fans to move the unthinkably hot Indian summer air.

We got word of Power of Power through Zoya, a fusion folk artist based out of Orange County, who reached out to let us know about the campaign and the upcoming release of her new compilation album, Zoya: Plugged In. All proceeds of Zoya: Plugged In go directly to plugging in the school, which estimates the per-classroom costs to be approximately $5,500 ($300 per room for wiring, $200 per room for fans and tube lights).

Zoya: Plugged In features 9 producers who have remixed tracks from Zoya’s albums The Girl Who Used To Live In My Room and Letters To Toska. Featured artists include Twistyknobs, Jade Cicada, He Will Add, Smigonaut, Icaro, Asteroids & Earthquakes, The Crateful Head, NuMind, and CliffLight. The full album is set to be released October 20, 2015. In the meanwhile, check out the samples on SoundCloud.

Here’s the promo video for Power of Power:

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Photos about the project, including photos from the classroom that Zoya: Plugged In will be plugging in: