Mangaluru: Music, art and coastal memories will come together aboard a boat off Mangaluru on Sunday evening as Chorus of the Coast — The Homecoming Show, the second chapter of Indie Sound Trail’s Stories in Sound series, brings independent music and Tulunadu’s cultural heritage into a floating venue.Organised in association with Art Kanara Trust, the four-hour event will feature four musical acts, an exhibition of archival photographs, paintings and publications, and coastal-inspired food.Indie Sound Trail founder Carol Pinto, who works in experience design, brand strategy and curation, started the initiative with musician Joel Austin to create platforms for original music. Their first Bengaluru show brought together about 20 people from their musician circles, leading to Stories in Sound. Its first chapter, The Open Book, explored lyrical storytelling through three acts reflecting on time, age and coming of age.For the second edition, organisers wanted a homecoming.Pinto said Mangaluru had abundant creative talent but needed spaces and an ecosystem to sustain it. Many musicians resorted to cover performances because they believed original music had no market.“A market doesn’t just happen, you have to create it,” she said, explaining that they aim to help musicians perform original compositions and build audiences.Tickets, which went on sale on Tuesday, sold out by Thursday night, Pinto said, adding that they hope to make the series an annual event featuring regional and outstation artists.Mangaluru-born Praveen Alva will lead Alva Kuuto’s contemporary Tulu performance. Austin, IST’s co-founder, will bring rock, country and blues, including music from his debut EP, The Colour of Water, written during a stay in Mangaluru. Acoustic duo Echoes in the Dusk will offer dual-guitar harmonies, while ToddyKats will combine percussion and DJ-led live mixing inspired by the toddy-tapping community.With World Tulu Script Day observed on Oct 10, the organisers also sought to highlight Tulu language, script, art and heritage through the event, partnering with Art Kanara Trust and Solmelu Studios.The upper deck will host performances, food and conversations, while the lower deck will house The Floating Archive, presented with Art Kanara Trust.Trust founder-trustee Nemiraj Shetty said the exhibition will feature senior photographer Yagna’s photographs from the 1970s to the 1990s, images documenting Mangaluru’s early cricketing history, photographs from the coffee-table book Catholic Houses of Mangalore, rare photographs of veteran parliamentarian Ullal Srinivas Mallya, and paintings by popular artists.Solmelu Studios, the official lettering partner, has created hand-drawn Tulu-script artwork reading Kaḍala Kereta Pāḍdana (Songs of the Coast). Founder Nishant Ratnakar said the aim was to make Tulu script something people could learn, use and carry forward.
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