Vivaldi goes East, Tyagaraja to the West

Susheela Raman won the BBC Newcomer Radio 3 Award for World Music in 2002 with her debut album- Salt Rain. Susheela attempts several things with her music, apart from exploring her own musical boundaries. She attempts to uplift her listeners, and bring out their emotions as she weaves stories through her music.

But in the end, what do you think is happening? While Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven have captured the imaginations of contemporary Eastern composers; Tyagaraja [Link] and Dikshitar [Link] have quitely travelled to the West. Western musicians experimenting with fusion music have found inspiration and direction in Indian Classical music. Susheela is one such artist. She continues to explore and evolve with new sounds that celebrate multiplicity. She has successfully collaborated with musicians across Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa to re-capture compositions in a new light or give birth to new ones.

Susheela talks about her background ...

I was born in London in 1973 to South Indian parents. My family moved to Australia when I was very young and were eager to keep our Tamil culture alive. I grew up singing South Indian classical music and began giving recitals at an early age. As a teenager I branched out into more blues-based music, which demanded quite different voice techniques. The question then was how to bring these streams together. In 1995 I went to India to study with Shruti Sadolikar, one of the greatest living Hindustani vocalists. This was a challenging experience as I had to let go of what I thought I knew and find a new, more insightful approach to my craft.

Returning to England in 1997, I started to work with Sam Mills who had made a record called Real Sugar with a Bengali singer named Paban Das Baul. This record inspired me because it bridged a gap and found common ground for Indian music to be expressed to a new audience. Sam’s work with West African group Tama also opened a whole set of musical contact points.

A little about one of her debut album- Salt Rain:

Salt Rain marks the debut of an extraordinary new talent on the world music scene. A singer born in the U.K. to South Indian parents, Susheela Raman's bold and sensuous voice weaves the music of India with sounds from her Western upbringing, celebrating the collision of European, African, and Asian musical cultures. Empowered by her Indian classical training but not limited by it, Susheela maps out a new musical landscape of intense beauty and invention.

Salt Rain is the culmination of a three-year collaboration between Susheela Raman and Real World producer/guitarist Sam Mills.

Explore more about Susheela on her webpage. [Link]
Also, don't forget to check out our links to many other artists from around the world at the bottom of the left menu. This list keeps growing because there is no dearth of talent in the world!