Prey

Winner of the Gaudeamus Prize in Music Composition, Rohan Chander a.k.a. BAKUDI SCREAM presents Prey, a 40-minute cyberpunk-hardcore meets vaudevillian variety show composed for himself and chamber music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

Since his first release (Final Skin), BAKUDI SCREAM has built a cyborg performance practice, donning a full-body suit and mask– metallic and electronically wired– creating live music from within this heavy shroud as he moves erratically through the crowd. In Prey, this sense of danger is preserved and heightened. Armed with a nine-yard length of fabric reminiscent of a sari, a pair of manjira, a microphone, and a light mounted inside a backpack he wears, BAKUDI SCREAM performs a 10 part variety show that adapts the vaudevillian tropes of pantomime, magic trick, shadow puppetry, dance, and musical performance into a critique of modern, pseudo-spiritualism.

In Prey, vaudeville is used to conjure the logic-defying– a perfectly executed magic trick that pulls from beyond our perceptual or bodily understanding. In a benevolent world, these acts can be transcendent, inviting an imagination of spiritual and god-like symbols. However in the hands of violence, they can be distorting, tricking us into inequities of power or falsehoods. Prey explores both possibilities, setting them against the context of religious fascism occurring both within India and the United States. It asks: what does a spiritual practice look like when we ask how our prayers are used?

Prey’s soundtrack acts as the cornerstone for the performance, drawing from an eclectic and confrontationally set collection of styles that appeal to faith. Spanning traditions of dark metal, dhol tasha, post-punk, Tollywood cinema, and orchestral music, the album was composed, produced, and released by BAKUDI SCREAM in April 2025.

A theatrical production directed by Chana Porter is currently in development.