This interview was published in conjunction with the screenings of The Opportunist and I Was Born, But… at SFSFF 2024
Utsav Lal has crossed many borders, some of which you can hear in his voice. Speaking the Indian-accented English of his native Delhi, flecked with Americanisms from his adopted hometown of New York City, he occasionally drifts into a slight lilt, having spent his teenage years in Ireland and Scotland. The cultures that converge in him, however, are a mere sampling of the musical styles in which he is versed. Trained in Eastern classical from a tender age, he first performed solo at nine, on the piano, playing scores from Indian films of the 1950s and ’60s that he’d taught himself by ear. By the time he turned professional, he was winning awards for pioneering a musical frontier, combining the piano, an instrument long associated with Western music, with the ragas of his first musical education. But he was just getting started. Soon, he was crossing all manner of borders, mixing in experimental jazz and raw blues laments, Irish and Celtic traditionals for a unique sound that has been described as having “its own vocabulary.”
He made his SFSFF debut in 2019, accompanying the German-Indian coproduction, Shiraz, an epic reimagining of the history behind the building of the Taj Mahal, and has since returned to play for an eclectic range of films: Flowing Gold, a mythologization of the early Texas oil-boom era, Paul Leni’s spooky/silly The Cat and the Canary, and one of Yasujiro Ozu’s humanist gangster pictures, Walk Cheerfully. This year he continues to cross yet more borders to accompany Ozu’s endearingly melancholy I Was Born, But… about growing up in a rapidly changing Japan, and Mykola Shpykovskyi’s The Opportunist, a sharp satire set against the Bolshevik scramble for control of Ukraine. Between recording sessions and concert hall soundchecks, Lal took some time to answer a few questions about what it has been like to marry his eclectic musical style with live cinema.
What was the first silent movie you played for?
The first movie was Shiraz, which I’ve gotten to perform now at least five or six times. Jonny Best from the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival (now Northern Silents) reached out after hearing about my work with raga music on the piano, asking if this was something I would consider doing. It seemed like an interesting offer for something different and that prompted me to really investigate the world of silent film, where I discovered such a vibrant community of artists. Both Jonny and Donald Sosin were a big help, offering me an introduction to this world, and some really invaluable guidance. When I arrived in Yorkshire to play for Shiraz, I had pages and pages of written material, but Jonny nudged me towards leaving it behind to just interact with film while performing—which was great advice. I was encouraged by the reception of my score in Yorkshire, Denver, and San Francisco. Since then, I’ve loved exploring other films and, so far, I’ve gotten to play for different genres and styles of films each year.
What about accompanying silent films appeals to you?
I like composing and performing in service of something bigger than the music, being completely subservient to the world of each particular film. I feel like there is less ego involved than when the music has to stand up on its own.
My musical life ranges from performing and developing Indian classical music on the piano, jazz, and experimental improvisation and composition as well as Irish traditional music and everything that those things intersect. I always find when writing for silent film, all these areas converse unintentionally and those connections end up informing my other solo performances and writing. A lot of the different musical worlds I explore all end up coming together in a way that’s pretty interesting for me.
I’m still relatively new to this world so I really love watching and getting to know these films and also have a deep appreciation of the community behind the scene. It’s so great coming to places like SFSFF and seeing the passion behind not just the musicians but also the presenters, archivists, restorers, and others. The community aspect of silent film, which is so integral to any artistic universe, is rich, diverse, supportive, and exciting and that makes doing this work even more gratifying.
What is your particular approach to accompanying silent films?
There is a huge canvas of possibilities for accompaniment but, in the end, I pick whatever best serves the emotional needs of a particular scene. The first time I watch a film, I sit at the piano and improvise the whole way without pausing. After that, every film so far has been different, I guess. Sometimes I just watch it many times, making notes of very specific scenes and timestamps or of mini personal reflections about emotional content and character development, semiotics of expression. The balance between composed and improvised is something that’s fun to play with. I prepare with a strong idea of what each section needs, but I often leave space for improvisation, finding different paths through every performance of the film. The deeper I can connect with and meditate on a film, the cleaner and more streamlined the score can be. It’s always interesting to me how I write a lot of music in the first few drafts and then mostly just end up taking things away.
Have you ever scored or considered scoring for a contemporary film?
It’s something I’ve been contemplating more and more and there are some exciting plans in the works. I’ve recently enjoyed working with installation artists and was honored to write for Amar Kanwar’s new work, A Peacock’s Graveyard, commissioned for the 2023 Sharjah Biennial and currently installed at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York. Amar created this incredibly rich and beautiful existential work for seven screens. I also got to work on Amirtha Kidambi’s score for Suneil Sanzgiri’s video installation Two Refusals, which is now part of his solo show at the Brooklyn Museum. I’m also planning to score my first feature-length independent film later this year, early next year, which I’m very excited about. Details will probably be released in a few months.