artists
Talvin Singh
what's new
- 2011/08/26
- TALVIN SINGH live concert coming soon!
- 2010/10/29
- Talvin Singh presents TABLATRONIC set
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profile
Talvin Singh
Born in Leytonstone in east London in 1970, Talvin Singh is a renowned tabla player, electronic musician, music theorist, record producer, and DJ.
As a solo artist, he is widely known as the creator of contemporary Asian electronica, but is also famous as a record producer and visual practitioner.
Inspired by traditional Indian art, Singh first made a name for himself as a tabla player in the London 1980s music scene.
In his mid-teens, Singh visited India and asked Acharya Pandit Laxman Singh, a Punjabi school tabla master, to take him as a student. This experience had a great impact on the young Singh who has since continued to spread tabla music across the globe
Singh has collaborated with traditional Indian musicians such as Ustad Sultan Khan, Rakesh Churasia, Ustad Imrat Khan, and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and provided scores to other artists. In the late 1980s, he started collaborating on experimental music
and worked together with musicians Sun Ra and Courtney to spread the popularity of the burgeoning Asian underground subculture movement.
Singh has since collaborated with several musical pioneers such as Björk, Blondie, Sioux & the Banshees, Madonna, DJ Spooky, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Jay Z, and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. In 1999, Singh released the album "OK". This album was made over the course of nine months while traveling around the world together with guest musicians Nenes, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bill Laswell, Aziz Ibrahim (ex Stone Roses),
Cleveland Watkiss and a number of young Indian musicians. "OK" won Singh the Mercury Music Prize that is awarded to the best contemporary artists in England and Ireland. In the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Singh once again introduced traditional Indian musical concepts into Western pop, dance music, and jazz. The release of his solo albums OK (1998) (which own the UK's most prestigious awards 'The South Bank Prize' and the 'Mercury Prize' in 1999), HA (2001), and others were a great success. Released in 1998, the extremely popular debut album "OK"
was recorded in Mumbai, Madras, Okinawa, NY and London with the help of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bill Laswell, Ustad Sultan Khan and the Madras Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to his career in music, Singh also does work in the field of art.
His artistic productions include creating the London club ANOKHA, performing at London's Tate Gallery, creating the sound installations at the London Frith Street Gallery, and providing music for experimental dance, theater, and film productions. In 1990, Singh came up with idea for the Tablatronic which is a hybrid electronic/analog instrument that allows for a plethora of different kinds of sounds.
Singh established an unparalleled and unique new musical genre. Going forward as well, he is sure to exercise his mastery and connect together things that are seemingly unrelated. Acoustic and electronic sound, traditional and contemporary culture, Singh is a timeless pioneer in all he does. Nobody can fathom what other masterpieces he will produce from his universe within.
