Music As Medicine

For the last time in 2017, the 5th installment of Music As Medicine returns to the Wonder Inn for a very special event:

A night of healing sounds inspired by the Indian subcontinent channelled through Manchester.

Traditional // Fusion // Devotional // Experimental // Acoustic // Electronic

5 unique live acts will be joined by DJ Akrrrs

• Jason Singh (Indo-African shamanic explorations)
• Sarah Sayeed (folk-soul journeys with tanpura, tabla + harmonium)
• Olivia Moore and Sandeep Popatkar (Indian classical violin + tabla)
• The Order Of Love (vibrant world funk improv sound journey)
• Madeeha Mubarak (mantra)
• DJ Selections: Akrrrs (From Indian Acid to Afro Beat)

In the 70th anniversary year of Partition, we invite artists with Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi heritage to bring their own medicine music to The Wonder Inn.  From the traditional and the devotional, to fusions of styles and experimental explorations through collaboration and improvisation, we present the old and the modern, the acoustic and the electronic. Through voice, skin, string and silicon, each artist has their own unique way of raising the vibration, lifting the heart with their music and attempting to untangle the knots of the human condition through their lyrics.

We'll celebrate some of the rich and diverse musical flavours and influences that the subcontinent offers the wider human family, and how that can morph and evolve via the melting pot of contemporary UK music and culture.

*** Madeeha Mubarak is also a chef specialising in authentic Punjabi food which will be available to buy from early evening at the event.***

Music As Medicine: Facebook Event

Music As Medicine: Facebook Page 

Jason Singh 

Jason Singh is a composer, musician, sound artist, creative producer, facilitator and performer.

He is a solo artist and collaborator who works across a wide range of art forms, music genres, educational practices and sound formats (binaural and ambisonic). 

His creative output includes unique live beatbox film scores, large scale ambisonic sound installations, sound design for gallery/museum exhibitions, collaborative experiments with sound, ceramics, textiles and museum objects.

Singh also receives commissions and collaborates with a wide range of artists and organisations.  Some of these include BFI, BBC, V&A Museum, Unity Theatre, Whitworth Gallery, Tate Britain, Royal Exchange Theatre, Nitin Sawhney, Rokia Traore, Shabaka Hutchings, Stuart McCallum, Yazz Ahmed, Sarathy Korwar and Sebastian Rochford.

Between 2006 and 2013 he mentored and toured with musicians from Rajasthan, India and is currently music director of Frequencies,  a music project run by Music For Youth.  Singh facilitates national and international workshops exploring the voice, body and technology.  He works with mainstream and young people with special educational needs (SEN).

Jason is currently the artist in residence for Hull City of Culture 2017, an awardee of the PRS New Music Biennial Award and Associate Artist with Fermynwood Contemporary Arts.

For Music As Medicine, Jason will be performing exclusive new material: An exploration of Indian and African rhythms for ritual, ceremonial and shamanic use. A combination of voice, effects, instruments and electronics.

https://jasonsinghthing.com 

Sarah Sayeed

Sarah Sayeed is a writer/performer who has grown up on a musical diet of Tagore, Motown and electronica.

Trained in Indian classical techniques with maestro Swati Natekar, she has released work through Public Transit Recordings and her own single Black Is was independently released in 2009, described by Bobby Friction as a ‘360 degree conscious artist’  

Sarah has performed nationally and internationally with shows to include Samson and Delilah, Sydney Festival, BBC Mela, Brighton Fringe and DePercussion. She was recently commissioned by Sound and Music to create a composition to be played by Kuljit Bhamra (Indian Summers) and Anne Denholm (Royal Harpist to the Prince of Wales). She has just launched BBC Radio 3 Season Launch, where she will be featured as a writer and composer for a new radio drama.

Sarah is also one half of the international duo 'Myth Of Her', with Danish multi instrumentalist Anne Elthard.

Sarah will be collaborating with Music As Medicine's Damien Mahoney for this performance which will include harmonium, tanpura, tabla, guitar, voices and fx.

Sarah Sayeed

Before Us - Video

Sandeep Popatkar and Olivia Moore

Sandeep is a talented and creative ‘Tabla’ (a two-piece Indian drum) player from Mumbai, who learned his art of playing Tabla from his guru and father, Late Pandit Manikrao Popatkar, a world renowned player from the Banaaras Gharaana (Varanasi tradition of tabla players). Manikrao played on the seminal Indian Classical album Call Of The Valley that influenced Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Sandeep has accompanied various top musicians from India like Shrimati, Jyotsna Bhole(vocalist), Aasha Khaadilkar(vocalist), G.S.Sachdev(flutist), Ashraf Khan(sitarist) and recently, Pandit ShivKumaar Sharma(Santoor) & his son Raahul Sharma. Sandeep has also been involved in many fusion projects including recording and playing live with Suns of Arqa. He currently lives in Manchester, where he teaches Tabla to all age groups and participates in music workshops, demonstrations and regularly performs with local and overseas musicians. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1YowK7EdZQ

Olivia has performed at many of the UK’s biggest venues such as at the Lowry, Bridgwater Hall, The Barbican & Glastonbury Festival, Purcell Room. She has appeared at the UK’s main Jazz festivals (including London, Manchester and Brecon) with her own Indian Style Jazz band “Unfurl”. 

She performs internationally with tabla player Mukesh Jadhav from Pune. She has collaborated with a number of other Indian artists too, most recently Chitravina Maestro Ravikiran. She teaches Indian music/violin privately and in Workshop situations.

http://www.oliviolin.com

The Order Of Love

The Order Of Love is a new project focused on live improvisation.  Eastern, African and South American rhythms meet funk bass, dubbed out guitars and expansive vocal tones for a deep, entrancing sound and dance journey.  Members of Music As Medicine crew, Caulbearers and Single Cell Collective will collaborate on this unique, exclusive set with other artists from the line up.

Madeeha Mubarak

"I have recently embarked on a musical journey and have been singing medicine songs in a number of languages such as Hindi, Urdu and Arabic as well as English. I am an angelic reiki master and also a chef specialising in authentic Pakistani food and run a vegetarian catering business which assists in community projects . Using reiki, I infuse this into my cooking for extra love and healing, and sing prayers and mantras into the food during preparation."

Madeeha Mubarak

DJ Akrrrs

Hailing from the north east, with Indian and Bangladeshi heritage, Akrrrs spent his formative years in Leeds and Manchester. Although he began life as a DJ spinning jungle and Detroit techno in the early ‘90s, ambient and world music have remained major influences (he has been the curator of the ‘Dream Sequence’ series of ambient mixes for the past five years). Expect a hypnogogic mix and blend of sounds from all corners of the world, guaranteed to enhance your state of consciousness.

https://www.mixcloud.com/akrrrs/