There’s a new album on the way from London based, American born and Indian bred percussionist, producer and composer Sarathy Korwar, following 2019’s powerful and politically charged More Arriving. Entitled Kalak, the album is described as “an Indo-futurist manifesto” as Korwar explains:
“The discourse around futurism is often deeply rooted in Eurocentric ideas of the world. Much like Afro-futurism, Indo-futurism is moving the focus to the global south. In South Asia, culturally, we envisage our relationship to the future and the past in ideas of cyclicality. For example, karma as a concept. Time doesn’t have to flow in a line but can be understood to flow in a circle.
In music, there’s an inherent hierarchy when you talk about left to right and top to bottom. I started thinking about a rhythmic notation system that was circular. These patterns started forming over time, and the more I thought about that, and the kind of symbolism that they began to have, I realised that this would be the core of the record.”
Recorded at Real World studios with New York electronic musician, DJ and producer Photay on production duties, Kalak is set for release on November 11th through The Leaf Label. Ahead of it, Korwar has shared the phenomenal and fiery lead single ‘Utopia Is A Colonial Project’. Speaking about the track, Korwar comments:
“Utopia can be seen as a diagram for colonisation,” Korwar says. “Ideas of utopia are intrinsically linked to the mindset of settler colonialism. It comes from seeing the natural world as an inanimate resource rather than a living, sentient being. We need to be anti-utopian, and anti-dystopian. We need to be able to imagine futures drastically different to the kind of ‘utopias’ that are being sold by right-wing populist politicians in South Asia and beyond.”
‘Utopia Is A Colonial Project’ is offered with a video directed, shot and edited by Elliott Gonzo and starring award-winning choreographer/dancer Botis Seva. Watch it below.
