GOA COMMUNITY FEATURE : NEPTUNE CHAPOTIN (WORLD HARPS)

Neptune’s first connection with the mouth harp was forged when he discovered one in his mother’s bedroom around the age of twelve, a small Afghani ‘Chang’ that she had picked up in Afghanistan while hitchhiking from Paris to Kashmir on her first trip to India in 1969.  Born in Anjuna, Goa to French and American parents and then raised in California, Neptune has spent much of his life traveling since an early age and has been based in Goa since 1999.

In 2003, Neptune finally came across his own first mouth harp in a music shop in Tamil Nadu and began actively playing and teaching himself how to produce as many different sounds as possible from this tiny instrument. He discovered a passion for collecting Mouth Harps from various countries of the world and began selling them as the fruits of his travels. This is how the  #TheWorldHarpsCollection came into being as World Harps - Mouth Harps from Around the World.

Neptune's journey progressed further as he began performing and selling his harps at music festivals and markets across the United States and India. In 2010, he embarked on his first solo backpacking trip across Europe where he chanced upon meeting several traditional artisanal mouth harp makers in person along his way. With these visits he recognized that every mouth harp produced by the different makers around the world carries a unique story of each individual artisan, along with the essence of the cultural history of mouth harp making in their respective countries. 

Through his work Neptune focuses on carrying forward the personal essence of each maker to every person who chooses to purchase a mouth harp from World Harps. Here is a picture about the time he met the Drymba maker Shatruk in Western Ukraine.

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Infused with a mastery of rhythmic diaphragm, trigger, and tongue control, Neptune Chapotin’s signature style of Mouth Harp playing ranges between dreamy melodic modulations and percussive trance beats saturated with resounding acoustic reverb.

Playing for close to twenty years and ranking amongst the world's most acclaimed Mouth Harpists, Neptune is a medalist of the title of “World Virtuoso” earned at the 7th International Mouth Harp Congress held in Yakutia, Siberia. He is a member of the band Third Pulse, and is also the founder of the World Mouth Harp Festival of India.

Currently, he is in Goa performing as well as teaching workshops structured with pedagogic expertise by means of a step-by-step dissection of his own personal techniques. Neptune’s style of instruction is a comprehensive presentation through a simplification of the fundamentals of Mouth Harp playing. His next workshops is scheduled to be conducted at Mojigao in North Goa on the 28th of February.

Neptune still regularly travels around the world searching for the various makers of this global instrument, with a focus on exploring individual traditions and techniques of Mouth Harp making. Through his work of acquiring Mouth Harps for the World Harps Collection while spreading instruments and knowledge, Neptune continues to play a significant role in raising awareness of the Mouth Harp as a contemporary instrument in society today.

Visit him at the Goa Collective Bazaar, every Friday at Hilltop, Vagator.