We’ve been counting down the days since July when Sarathy Korwar announced his seventh album There Is Beauty, There Already, and today the wait gets a little sweeter with the release of two new singles, ‘Beauty Doesn’t Know What It Looks Like’ and ‘We Won’t Go Searching’. With drums at the centre, Korwar has created a 40-minute suite of percussion-led compositions that harness the full melodic and emotive potential of the rhythm. These new singles weave together Indian classical influences with raw and emotive percussion, as layers of drums, handclaps, and pentatonic bells build a hypnotic and intoxicating atmosphere. Listen to both cuts below and grab the album when it’s out on November 7th through Otherland.

To celebrate the album’s release, Korwar will be performing at The ICA on November 15th as part of the London Jazz Festival, where he’ll expand his ensemble to twelve drummers, turning the rhythms of the album into a powerful live experience.

Photo: Keerthana Kunnath

A new Sarathy Korwar album is always exciting news. The incredibly talented percussionist, producer, and composer has announced the release of There Is Beauty, There Already, following KALAK, which was one of our Album Picks of 2022, and its companion album, KAL (Real World), which dropped in 2023. With his upcoming album, Korwar has shifted his focus back to the drums, creating a 40-minute, percussion-led suite that captures the full melodic and emotive potential of the rhythm. “The album is me finding my voice as a composer again and going back to the thing I know best, which is the drums,” Korwar explains. “It’s me falling back in love with percussion and expressing just how melodic and emotive it can be. Unlike my other albums that have often engaged with weighty themes like migration, identity and futurism, this is a raw act of placing myself front and centre – letting the drums speak instead.”

Recorded over four days at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, with collaborators Photay, Magnus Mehta, and Joost Hendrickx, There Is Beauty, There Already draws on Indian folk rhythms, jazz, and minimalist classical influences. With absolute freedom, and an array of percussion instruments from drum kit to tabla, marimba, balafon, udu and ghatam, the group embraced a trance-like flow, letting the rhythm evolve naturally. “By day three, we realised that we kept coming back to this single, repeated 40-minute pattern, which was locking us in and making us hypnotised by its rhythm,” Korwar shares, describing the powerful grip the loop had on them. “I decided to do multiple takes of that idea to build a structure – and that’s what you ultimately hear on the record.”

There Is Beauty, There Already is described as Korwar’s most personal and vulnerable work to date, with an album cover featuring a grid of self-portraits taken at his local Co-Op over the past five years, “a ritual story of my life in images,” as he described it. Coupled with a self-written poem, the new album marks a new chapter for Korwar both musically and personally. It’s also the inaugural release on his own label, Otherland. “It’s a home for my own future music and music from others that doesn’t tick many boxes – that doesn’t have a motherland or fatherland of its own,” he explains. “It’s about embracing this music as it is, finding the beauty in it and recognising it, just as the album title says.”

We’ll have to wait until November 7th for the album to be out but we can already hear the mesmerizing and pulsing first single,’We Take Things For Granted’, and it leaves us eagerly awaiting the full album release.

Sarathy Korwar‘s magnificent third album, Kalak, was of one of our Album Picks of 2022 and we haven’t put it down since it came out last November. The London based, American born and Indian bred percussionist, producer and composer has announced the surprise release of KAL (Real World), a companion piece to KALAK. Recorded at Real World Studios, Korwar is accompanied by a stellar band featuring Danalogue and Al MacSween on synths, Tamar Osborn on baritone sax and flute, and percussionist Magnus Mehta. Speaking about it, Korwar commented:

“This was the first time we met and played together with other human beings in the same room for almost a year, after the first lockdown. It was a hopeful time where for a brief period we believed things were getting better. There was a lot of fondness, camaraderie and kindness in the room, and playing together felt like a cathartic expression. KAL (Real World) was recorded in less than 24 hours at the incredible Real World Studios. Just being present in those rooms, which had borne witness to so many great recordings, elevated our senses.”

KAL (Real World) is out tomorrow through The Leaf Label and Korwar has shared a video for ‘Songs or People’ which serves as an exhilarating taste of what’s on offer. The video was filmed by Fabrice Bourgelle and you can watch it below.

As The Leaf Label prepares for the release of Sarathy Korwar‘s impending third album Kalak, a new mesmerizing single from the London based, American born and Indian bred percussionist, producer and composer is now streaming. Titled ‘Remember To Look Out For The Signs’, it follows previously released singles ‘Remember Begum Rokheya’ and ‘Utopia Is A Colonial Project’. “’Remember To Look Out For The Signs’ is currently my favourite song on the album,” Korwar said of the track. “Hypnotic and polyrhythmic drum grooves that epitomise the cyclicality of KALAK. It’s a warning call, a reminder that change happens incrementally and if we don’t pay attention, it might be too late.”

The single is offered with a visualiser filmed by Korwar and Fabrice Bourgelle. Watch it now.

Kalak is out on November 11th through The Leaf Label.