It’s amazing to know how two brains come together giving birth to multiple ideas, blending multiple concepts to create something unique, beautiful and saleable. Vinesh Iyer and Darryl Noronha share their musical journey of translating dreams into reality
Goa witnessed the first edition of ‘Raga Rasa at Heritage Homes – A Good Morning Heritage Experience’ celebrating the onset of the monsoon last year. A brain child of Vinesh Iyer and Darryl Noronha this is an innovative concept offered by Art Escape Experience, ‘Raga Rasa’ which will be launching the evening edition ‘An Interactive Indian Classical Sitar performance followed by Electric Sitar live Ambient Electronic Music Set by Varun Nimbolkar (Pune) Songwriter – Composer – Middle Finger Sitarist, on July 13 at Tien, Vagator in North Goa and on July 14 at Silva Heritage, Benaulim in South Goa between 5-10 pm.
Known for their ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas, Vinesh and Darryl have been venturing together for the past 15 years. Coming from creative backgrounds, one thing brought them together was talking about dream projects. Kicking off their well-settled multidisciplinary design studios in Bombay, they moved to Goa in 2009 to live their dream, breathe in some fresh air and start their pilot project Art Escape. Giving up their hectic schedules in busy metros, they embraced this tiny State, and opened a new chapter in their lives.
Co founders of many ventures – Ideas Boutique, Art Escape, The Live Music Project (TLMP), Live Festivals and Inspire Trust, today, the duo are known for their passion for art, music, design, sustainability and everything under the sky.
Vinesh is an architect, designer, artist and a curator of art and music while Darryl, a graphic designer, branding guru, artist and visionary. The duo offer quality art, music, creative workshops as well as architecture, design, environment projects and festivals in Goa, and outside. Their clients come from a wide spectrum of businesses.
Vinesh shares, “Ideas Boutique (IB) or Great Ideas Boutique (GIB) is Ideas to Business (I2B) is our parent company and creative think tank creating intellectual properties for self and various brands in multidisciplinary domains. IB consults/mentors projects in the areas of art, music, architecture, hospitality, communication strategy, branding and marketing, environment and education. We bridge the gap between multiple design consultants and vendors by offering a one stop design solution for the business. IB is a collaborative design company offering its clients multi disciplinary services and sharing their particular needs and visions. We do out-of-the-box sessions called as ‘Bheja Fry’ for businesses that need fresh new ideas or concepts to activate their brands.”
Vinesh recalls, “We have believed in solid collaborations since we started Art Escape in 2009 with our close friend Dr Speed, AKA Dr Shreeram who believed and financially supported the idea. In 2011, we had more partners/collaborators – Deepak Pathania, Carol Pathania and Sandra D’souza (Sandy) who funded and joined us taking Art Escape to the next level. Amitava Bhattacharya from banglanatak supported us by bringing folk artists/cultural festivals to Art Escape and Goa.”
Art Escape Resort – AE (2009– 2014) was an Eco Art Resort Space Back to Basic that combines environmentally-friendly living spaces with hands-on experiences learn-by-doing in food, art, music, dance, culture, wellness and sustainability. It was their first endeavour at Vaddi Beach, Benaulim.
“The Live Music Project (TLMP) started as a dedicate platform for live music cutting across all genres for emerging and professional musicians at Baywatch Resorts in Sernabatim. We set up a Live Lounge space (2013–2015). Dr Sydney Morraes made this happen! We started the Goa International Jazz Live Festival at Baywatch (2013-2014) when we met Astri Ghosh (Jazz Yatra/Jazz Utsav) at one of our TLMP Gigs – it was a collaboration for bringing jazz festivals to Goa. Jazz festival grew with another partner/collaborator Emmanuelle de Decker (Emma from Gatecrash/Jazz in India) and became the biggest jazz festival in India.
TLMP and Live Festivals started in 2013. The decade-long journey includes showcasing artists from 35 plus countries, with 750 plus bands in 1000 plus concerts with 1500 musicians. The beginning was humble with small jams and gigs. Darryl recalls, “In those days (2009-2010), Goa had jam scenes. We started that with Kurt Bento at Art Escape with Elvis Lobo & Friends (Friday jam night) – it just brought in all the musicians, patrons into one space. We wanted more people to come and experience it. We thought money should not be a barrier to experience music. That’s why it was free for so many years. But when it comes down to expenses, the fact that there are so many people involved in it – the venue, sound and lights, production, musicians, team, and how you pay everyone and make it sustainable? Audiences need to understand what goes behind the scene to make gigs/concerts/festivals to happen and pay an entry for it to keep the scene alive!
Now, what next? The duo is looking at curating, producing, managing artists, concerts and festivals in Goa, and other parts of the country and all over the world. TLMP is working on setting up TLMP Play – Learning Centre (Redefining Music School concept) with Jam Pad + Recording Studio, Community Radio and more. It’s time Art Escape comes back as dedicated art and culture resort space in South Goa. We are looking at investors/partners/collaborators to join forces to take our dreams and vision to the next level.
