Words by David C. Obenour
Having explored sounds from native and folk to electronic and jazz, composer and drummer, Sarathy Korwar surrounded himself with familiar beauty to create his seventh album. Bringing in fellow drummers, Photay, Magnus Mehta, and Joost Hendrickx, the quartet set up a live room filled with percussive instruments, such as a tabla, marimba, balafon, udu, and a drum kit. After three days of collaboration, an undeniable hypnotic pattern had emerged. Electronic textures and vocal tones were added, but the focus remained on the rhythmic and melodic sounds provided by the drums. There is Beauty, There Already – it just needed to be connected with and understood.
Off Shelf: What were the thoughts or parameters you went into the studio with for There is Beauty, There Already? Intentions you had set on what the music would explore or convey?
Sarathy Korwar: I knew I wanted it to be a single piece of music. I want to make something in response to our ever-decreasing attention spans. Most of the music I love is really long, actually! The intention was to play and lose oneself in the music and hopefully do the same with the listener.
OS: It’s a broad question but can you talk about how you hear the musicality and emotive tones in drums? How they can uniquely carry the full intent of a song differently from other kinds of instruments?
SK: Yes, absolutely! The reason I wanted to have only drummers involved is that we never get a chance to celebrate and hear all the beautiful sounds that drums are capable of creating. So this was a chance to really let them shine and take the limelight.
OS: Filling a room with a variety of drums to experiment and play with, can you highlight some of those used on There is Beauty, There Already and what you feel they add through their individual sound?
SK: We used a couple of drum kits, marimba, tabla, ghatam, udu, a drum machine, and the Buchla. I wanted a theme/motif to recur multiple times through the piece of music and the marimba does that really well. I love the combination of the bass drums on the tabla, ghatam and udu. They all give us very different tonal bass sounds, and their interplay is wonderful. Then of course, how can we forget the voice and handclaps which exist in so many different rhythm cultures around the world and propel this music?
OS: You recorded with percussionists Photay, Magnus Mehta, and Joost Hendrickx. Why did you choose them for this recording?
SK: I love them all as musicians. I love their sensibility and I trust them to value the same things in music that I value. I believe we love music for more or less the same reasons and I believe we like playing the drums for more or less the same reasons so it was an easy decision.
OS: Can you think of anything they brought here that wasn’t as you had expected from them at first? Or moments that really stand out from their playing on listening back?
SK: I didn’t expect Magnus to bring his marimba actually. I didn’t expect it to become such an integral part of the record. I didn’t expect Evan [Photay] to bring his Buchla, which again became such an integral part of the record. Joost brought some electronic pads that really brought the electro-acoustic nature of the music to the fore.
OS: The album was found through discovering a 40-minute pattern you all seemed to find yourselves coalescing around. What initially spoke to you about this progression?
SK: We were just jamming and locking into this pattern quite naturally. It was one of those jams, that when you’re in it, you not sure how to get out of it! When that happens, it’s always a sign that we have hit upon something special. So then we went back to the studio for the next couple of days and just developed the music from this pattern.
OS: Both as a performer and a listener, how do you consider the hypnotic qualities of song? What do you imagine that is connecting with in how it resonates?
SK: Quite simply, if we feel hypnotized while playing and creating this music I believe the same effect would occur to anyone listening later. I believe hypnosis doesn’t mean only repetition, it means slow movement and ever-shifting change in the pattern. The change not when you think it’s time to change but when your body and mind align. Not just with yourself but with the other performers in the room and you’re responding as a single organism. You let something larger than yourself guide this change and movement.
OS: How do you approach incorporating Indian folk music here? What do you feel the fusion of other influences brings out from it – either rooted in its tradition or evolving its range?
SK: I think a lot of folk music is based on the same ideas of hypnosis. I believe for folk music to be powerful – or for any music to be really powerful – it requires the surrender of the ego of the musicians creating it. So to think about folk music is always inspiring while making my own music.
OS: Now that you’ve recorded it, does that solidify the composition more for you when playing it again? What remains and evolves?
SK: Everytime we play a show the music evolves. I think the one thing that I am becoming more and more certain of is that there is strength and power in the drums.
OS: You have a poem that accompanies the album, was that done before or after the recording? How do you feel it connects with the music and how does sharing it enrich the experience?
SK: The poem was made after the album was recorded. It felt like a nice way to tie in all the tracks. To have one poem and one song. I believe the track names create an interesting connection with the music that’s open enough for people to interpret in their own way, whilst still being a body of work that has the basis in something intended.