P.M. Tummala is a multi-instrumentalist and producer who explores identity and false memories on his most recent album, Abstractions in Meera. Inspired in equal parts by Indian visual artists and architects like Raza, Gaitonde, Mohamedi, Doshi, and Rewal and the Hindustani, Carnatic, and Tollywood/Bollywood sounds of his childhood, he creates a sound companion to Indian modernism. While Bollywood composers from the ’60s and ’70s were known to inject western styles like rock, salsa, swing, Philly soul, and disco into their songs, Tummala re-imagines this tradition through a blurred lens of influences that span spiritual jazz, dub, musique concrète, Tropicália, ambient, and hip-hop/vinyl culture. With instrumentation that includes sampler, synthesizers, vibraphone, electric piano, and tape, he spins a dreamlike, lost-in-time collage of warped melodies and ghostly rhythms that plays as an alternate aural history of Indian soundtrack music.

Tummala released his debut album, Brindavan Mon Amour, in 2020. In addition to his solo work, he has produced albums by Chloe Yu Nong Lin and Allen Moore that were released in 2021. He has performed for Experimental Sound Studio’s Oscillations and Quarantine Concert series and the Gather series at Comfort Station.

Press on Abstractions in Meera
“In the music of P.M. Tummala, history gets absorbed, entangled, and reawakened…the Chicago-based producer concocts hazy worlds that alternately focus and blur. In the process, he nods toward some of his inspirations, particularly the Bollywood music he heard as a child. Nothing on Abstractions in Meera plays like a direct quote or nostalgic sentiment, though. Everything passes through the clouds of Tummala’s memory, emerging as a kaleidoscope in which chords, beats, and voices swirl together like colored liquids combining in a glass.” – Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: November 2021

“Abstractions in Meera is high quality dream music – and there is something hugely potent and generously laced throughout its numerous brain-tickling folds.” – Obladada

“There’s no one combining the kind of sounds and influences that Tummala does..this is beyond the meditative ideology which has become widespread within the world of experimentation. Abstractions in Meera is a spiritual journey. Tummala captures something truly freeing with these recordings. More freeing than anything else released this year, in fact.” – Sun 13

See Krissy perform at the Artist Showcase on Saturday, June 25th at Indian Boundary Park Cultural Center. Following his set, P.M. joins in for an improvisational session with Krissy Bergmark, Ashwaty Chennat, and Ranjani Prabhakar of Lil Idli.

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