Shri Vijaya Vittala: The Musical Pillars of a Medieval Indian Temple

First published on the British Library Sound and Vision blog.



The Shri Vijaya Vittala Temple sits among the breath-taking and sprawling ruins of the ancient city of Hampi, in Karnataka, India. Dedicated to Vittala, a manifestation of the god Vishnu and his avatar Krishna, the temple began construction sometime in the 15th or 16th centuries but was never finished – the city was destroyed in 1565.

Each of the temple’s eight main pillars are surrounded by seven smaller pillars. When these small pillars are struck with the hand or a wooden beater, they ring in a clear, bell-like tone. Not only that, but each pillar in a set is tuned to a different note, meaning that together they sound a scale on which music can be performed.

To read the full blog post and to listen to the recording of the Vittala Temple's musical pillars, head over to the British Library Sound and Vision blog.


Photo: Some of the musical pillars of the Vittala Temple. Photo by Tom Vater’s travel companion Aroon Thaewchatturat.

Parvyn - Sa

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 173, December 2021.

Parvyn
Sa
HopeStreet Recordings (39 mins)

Australian Punjabi singer Parvyn grew up among Sikh devotional music and trained in Hindustani classical music and dance. She began her career on stage with her father Dya Singh’s group, and moved on to be the lead singer of Melbourne’s psychedelic Bollywood big band The Bombay Royale. Now she strikes out on her own with a debut solo album.

Sa follows musical and lyrical ruminations on Parvyn’s past and future through mental health issues, parenthood and immigrant life, the music drawing from two main directions: Indian classical and jazz-angled R&B. Throughout the album, the proportions of these two influences shift one way and the other, but the music is always at its strongest when they balance each other out and Parvyn’s voice blends these two rather different vocal disciplines, such as on ‘Something 29’ and ‘Crossed the Line’. Aside from the intercultural vocal contortions, props also have to be given for some really satisfying production with meaty bass and restrained but effective use of synths and loops.

Sa is the first note of Indian sargam scale, and acts as the root, the beginning and the base: an appropriate name for a debut album that will hopefully stand as a sure footing for future work.

Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno - KWEChE

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 173, December 2021.

Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno
KWEChE
Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno (43 mins)

The nyatiti is an eight-stringed plucked lyre of the Luo people in Kenya. Played in a fast and rhythmic way, the nyatiti can provide a danceable groove; in fact, it’s one of the ancestors of benga music. Rapasa Nyatrapasa Otieno approaches the nyatiti in a different way.

Hailing from Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya and now based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Otieno plays the nyatiti in a much more introspective way, creating considered and atmospheric moods. On KWEChE, he maintains the instrument’s distinctive timbre, with its subtle buzz on each string, but the music it leads deals with weighty topics based on the cultural differences and adaptations so noticeable within a diaspora community.

For an album based around the nyatiti and Otieno’s high-pitched song, the best moments come when we’re given something a bit different. The track ‘Oyao Tich’, for example, with its lightly Celtic folk fiddle, ‘Buok’ with its Indian bansuri (flute) or the closer ‘Andiwo’ with its more upbeat feel and fresh, airy guitar, all buck the trend and are standout tracks as a result.

It’s great to hear the nyatiti in focus and KWEChE has its moments, but with notable exceptions, it seems to hit the same beats fairly often.

Aynur - WOMEX 21 Artist Award

First published in the WOMEX – World Music Expo 2021 delegate guide.



As both a Kurd and an Alevi, Aynur Doğan’s cultural heritage has always been subject to discriminatory laws and public persecution, whether in the small mountain town of Çemişgezek where she grew up, or the metropolis of Istanbul. With her music, however, singer and bağlama player Doğan – now usually known simply as Aynur – creates space for her identities and for those that share them.

At its core, Aynur’s music is based on Kurdish folk songs. Her voice – in turns bold and powerful or delicate, almost fragile – always holds the 300-year-old melodies in tender embrace. She carries these songs as a caretaker and a friend. She preserves the Kurdish and Alevi songs against those that would have them silenced, but at the same time, those songs give her the strength to continue as a commanding voice in support of those cultures.

Tradition doesn’t restrict Aynur’s music, though. Her own style blends the Anatolian and the Western, and collaborations with world-class musicians from many fields (including Yo-Yo Ma, Kayhan Kalhor, Mercan Dede and Javier Limón) have led to a passionate, international fanbase. Her accessible music allows her to spread her words far and wide.

Her popularity and outspoken nature have made Aynur the target of right-wing and anti-Kurd groups in Turkey. Her shows became marred by disruptions, leading her to move her base to Amsterdam in 2012. This has not dampened her fire: the most recent of her seven albums, 2020’s Hedûr, went to #1 on the world music charts and has led to a concert in Carnegie Hall (understandably postponed for now).

It is for her long-term dedication to the preservation and innovation of Kurdish and Alevi culture and for maintaining the highest artistic integrity even in the face of political pressure that Aynur is a very worthy recipient of the WOMEX 21 Artist Award.


Photo: Aynur receives the WOMEX 21 Artist Award, by Eric van Nieuwland.

Global Music Match - WOMEX 21 Professional Excellence Award

First published in the WOMEX – World Music Expo 2021 delegate guide.



The past year-and-a-half has been one of the most drastic and challenging periods of change in the history of the international music industry. Almost at once, and with very little warning, a world’s worth of live music disappeared, and musicians and audiences alike scrambled to find new ways of reaching each other without leaving their homes.

But adversity leads to innovation, and that’s where Global Music Match comes in. The heart of the premise is simple: folk- and roots-based musicians uplifting and promoting each other, mobilising each other’s audiences and creating new professional networks.

Each cycle of GMM takes place over twelve weeks. Teams are formed six artists, each from a different country or region, and each gets their own two-week spotlight across the whole team’s social media channels. These spotlights are a flurry of activity including interviews, live sets, unreleased material and exclusive – entirely digital – collaborations. After two editions, 172 artists and many thousands of fans have participated and benefitted from this mutual support network, with the help of music export offices from 17 countries and regions from around the world.

The exciting part of GMM is that it is not just a temporary quick-fix. It’s a new form of music export and cultural exchange, and one that is not necessarily anchored to the current situation. It is a real and effective way for artists to expand their audience in terms of numbers, as well as into new territories, opening up the possibility for new touring avenues post-pandemic.

For creating, at such short notice, a new and innovative platform that has already seen long-lasting and tangible benefits, and for being a source of optimism and comfort to musicians in a time of great struggle, we are delighted that Global Music Match will receive the WOMEX 21 Professional Excellence Award.


Photo: Just some of the hundreds of members of Global Music Match, by Eric van Nieuwland.

Introducing Dongyang Gozupa

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 172, November 2021.



At its best, the power trio is one of music’s most elegant and well-balanced ensembles. Each aspect of the trio leans on the others while pulling equal weight, filling the sonic space without any extraneous elements. Seoul-based Dongyang Gozupa are a perfect example – even if their set-up turns the standard power trio on its head.

Dongyang Gozupa are Jang Dohyuk on a personalised drum-and-percussion kit, Ham Minhwi on bass guitar and Yun Eunhwa on yanggeum, the Korean hammered zither. Importantly, the group doesn’t orbit around a singer. This removes the focal point of the listener’s attention, and serves to highlight the equal importance of each musician. Their full message is delivered through instrumental sound. “When one conveys an emotion, such as loneliness, joy, love, or even rage, there are times when one cannot express that emotion in a word or phrase,” they state. “Through our performances, we try to create an emotional narrative that connects with as many people as possible.”

While they paint with emotions, their musical style itself defies easy explanation. They don’t anchor their music around any particular genre, but draw from many streams. For Jang, genres aren’t the point: “Rather than wanting to create something that the world has never heard before, we just want to create something fun which incorporates the tastes and references of each band member.” This includes elements of prog-rock and gugak (traditional Korean music) with hints of metal and industrial, all tinged with the avant-garde, making a sound that can be dark and dissonant while retaining a certain playfulness: it avoids any over-seriousness and makes dancing inevitable.

It’s those spicy dissonances that give Dongyang Gozupa their signature sound. Those moments of discomfort are not something they shy away from, but rather embrace as a fundamental part of the sonic environment, a necessary tension to balance the consonance. “Personally, I don’t think that dissonance is something wrong,” says Ham. “This all-or-nothing, right-or-wrong thinking makes creative vision very narrow. It’s the same with dissonance. If a note does not fit in a particular place, repeating that note can create a special kind of psychedelic effect.” And that can take a piece to a different place entirely.

The group’s identity and philosophy can be seen in microcosm in Yun’s yanggeum; it is rooted in tradition without being bound to it. Her instrument was specially-made – it literally has her name on it: “I wanted to express myself with a yanggeum that was a little more spectacular and dynamic.” To that end, hers has many more strings than smaller gugak version, giving her access to a much wider range of both tone and style. Yun also plays with two sticks instead of the traditional one, and uses a variety of effects pedals to alter the sound when appropriate. Spectacular and dynamic – adjectives that extend to the whole group.

The past decade has seen a truly electrifying new wave of artists using Korean folk and classical music to discover new directions and meanings in sound – think Jambinai, Black String – and Dongyang Gozupa can surely claim their place among them: a perfectly-weighted power trio with an intricately balanced sound.


Photo: Yun Eunhwa, Jang Dohyuk and Ham Minhwi of Dongyang Gozupa.

Tommy Khosla - Vignettes

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 172, November 2021.

Tommy Khosla
Vignettes
Vadi Records (40 mins)

Vignettes is a series a small windows into the life, history and identity of its creator, London-based sitar player and producer Tommy Khosla. It is an exploration on the themes of mixed heritage (Khosla has roots in India, France and the UK) and neurodiversity that is filled with equal parts nostalgia and curiosity.

Across a collage of 18 very short tracks, most drifting in at around the one- or two-minute mark, sitar leads the way through lo-fi hip-hop beats, synths that blur between ambient and chillwave, and cameos from instruments such as shakuhachi and cellotar, all played by Khosla themself. Melodies also drift by the way of Hindustani classical music and English folk (with echoes of Sheema Mukherjee with the Imagined Village on tracks such as ‘Flora’). The use of sitar in these contexts has the risk of coming across as very corny, but such pitfalls are avoided with Khosla’s obvious skill at their instrument and their adventurous composition.

It all feels deeply personal, inspired by Khosla’s grandparents’ slideshows of their travels in north India, and littered with frequent snippets of family reminiscences and field recordings. Vignettes has been three years in the making, and is an accomplished debut for Khosla, with an impressive vision and maturity that belies their 22 years.