There’s an underlying feel of exploitation, of cultural colonialism when western artists utilise traditional, often religious chants , blending music that has been handed down for centuries with a few oscillations from their mini moog, or cool breakbeats crafted in Ableton. The problem is often this kind of cultural cherry-picking can produce some really compelling results, being musically adventurous, and creating this netherworld fusion between the two cultures – and it’s difficult to know where to sit with it.
Nagore Sessions is a unique collaboration by three south Indian daragh devotional sufi singers who sing in the local Tamil language, alongside Middle Eastern percussion, electronics, and contemporary Western and Indian instrumentation.
The way it overcomes the aforementioned problem is by listing itself as various artists and you have to dig into the fine print of the liner notes to discover that it was all arranged by Israeli producer Patrick Sebag who also contributed programming, keys and Rhodes to the project. Also buried in the mix is India based Earth sync founder Yotam Agam who mixed and mastered the project. This release comes on the heels of Laya Project where they travelled through 6 countries affected by the 2004 tsunami recording unknown artists so there’s already a certain amount of goodwill present.
The results are compelling to say the least, the production is lush and the percussion and the evocative chants fit together like they have existed that way for centuries. What’s perhaps more interesting is how the use of strings manages to work to create this propulsive forward momentum, melodies of flute exist and disappear, and the keys create these ethereal drones. It coalesces to create this new tradition, new devotional music, suggesting that it’s easy to get caught up in our little divides, yet when you decide to take away all the arbitrary rules, we’re left with one world and one music. Do I sound convinced? I want to be, this music is incredible,
Bob Baker Fish
