Nitin Sawhney

Following a foray through the realms of acid jazz with the James Taylor Quartet (an old school friend) and a lightning-quick alliance with Talvin Singh (the famed tablas player) as part of the Tihai Trio, Nitin Sawhney, born in 1964, was soon hailed as one of London’s Indian scene’s pioneers, creator of a new fusion between Indian and Western sounds.
With a shining solo career ahead of him, the British press tore his second album “Migration” apart (released in 1995), just as the following one "Displacing the Priest" (1996). A victim of racism as a child, “I grew up in one of the National Front’s strongholds in the 70s, Rochester in Kent”, this exceptionally talented and open-minded artist - author, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, remixer, journalist, teacher, TV and radio scriptwriter, actor – strived to break musical shackles and the clichés perpetuated by the British press concerning Indian and Pakistani people. For which, furthermore, he was given with the title “Angry British Asian Artist”. World music, Asian Underground, are just some of the labels thrown around that this extraordinary musician has rejected with a wave of the hand! Proof being his nomination for the Mercury Music Prize and winning a prestigious South Bank Award in 2000. “There are still people who think that Asians shouldn’t be part of this society’s mainstream” cried Nitin in revolt at finding his albums in the World Music section of record shops. “In fact, people use these categories to class artists according to their culture or their origin, it’s just an excuse for prejudice…this form of apartheid is very worrying and it just goes to show that the road is still long”. Nevertheless, and as paradoxical as it may seem, this veritable cultural militant and agitator still finds his inspiration in the roots of this ill, “oppression makes individuals express themselves” he claimed.
While his fourth album “Beyond Skin”, an harmonious mix of Indian, flamenco and Brazilian influences of a backdrop of drum’n’bass, attempted to define a musical identity way beyond restrictive political, national, religious or racial concepts, “Prophesy”, his fifth work, seemed more inspired by the chaos and madness of the new millennium. Strongly influenced by film soundtrack composers, from Ennion Morricone to Bernard Herrmann, Nitin Sawhney approached it as a scriptwriter-director letting his fertile imagination run wild but with a carefully chosen cast. A musical and spiritual odyssey, highlighting the gap still too great between technological progress and individual and personal development. “ I started with the album’s foundations in the studio (in London), then went travelling the world to give it a soul” explained Sawhney. Amongst the 240 musicians from the four corners of the world : Pepe Habicuella (Spain), Trilok Gurtu (Bombay), the Rishile primary school children’s choir (Soweto, South Africa), Terry Callier (Chicago), Nina Miranda (Smoke City), Natacha Atlas, without forgetting Cheb Mami, Nitin Sawhney having undertaken part of the production of his album Dellali (Virgin). In his quest for spirituality, the sound hunter even met and sampled Nelson Mandela. Guess what the great wise man said to him. “We are free to be free!”.
His album “Human” (V2), released in 2003, is once again a highly imaginative and sophisticated record, and one impossible to pigeonhole.

Jérôme Sandlarz