Moonsung by Sheila Chandra
A Real World Retrospective
"Hopefully, this collection...is merely a stopping-off point before total world domination." **** Q magazine, April 1999
The last eight years have been a period of immensely exciting growth for me as an artist. In that time a trilogy of albums for Real World has emerged as a cohesive entity. This 'Moonsung' compilation features some of the best of that work.
Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean
'Ever So Lonely' was my first single as the lead singer of 'Monsoon' - the term 'World Music' hadn't even been invented back then! Strip away Monsoon's innovative instrumental pop fusion - ie tablas and drum kit, guitars and sitars, etc - and what you are left with is a drone and a raga (fixed note scale) sensibility informing the melodic journey. In 1992, I knew that fans who'd waited ten years for me to give my first live performances would want to hear a version of 'Ever So Lonely' and so I created this medley which incorporates two other songs that share the same raga scale.
Dhyana and Donalogue
'Weaving My Ancestors' Voices' was a leap of faith for me and this is the track which constituted the breakthrough that made the rest of the album possible. It was while singing the final verse of 'Donalogue' one evening that I found my voice flying off into Islamic style vocal, as a response to the stoical nature of the scale that the original nine hundred year old Irish melody is set in. I realised that I had changed the raga from the original to a more minor, melancholic 'eastern' sounding one, and then unconsciously used the theme of the frequently occurring vocal ornaments as pivot points to cross back and forth from one style and tone of vocal to another. Very simple, but it was exactly the kind of practical knowledge I needed to make the rest of the album work.
Shehnai Song
Ever since my writing debut in 1984 with 'Quiet!', I have been attracted to the idea of using the voice as an instrument. On this track I emulate the nasal tones of the evocative shehnai - a North Indian reed instrument which expresses sadness almost as well as a voice. Its trade mark is an irresistible sort of slurring between notes.
The Enchantment
This piece makes use of the similarity between the four line verse form in English folk music and the four line 'ghat' or chorus of words and melody which form the key to a particular raga. When I heard Indian classical singers improvising, embellishing and extrapolating in endless beautiful variations on those simple four line ghats, I began to wonder why traditional English folk singers did not improvise when they had such a similar tool at their disposal. This track is the result of my imaginings of what such an improvisation in the English folk form would sound like.
Speaking In Tongues III
'Speaking In Tongues III' is one of a series of four pieces in which I decided to explore the emotive qualities of vocal percussion. The basic syllables which form the groundwork of the pieces are onomatopoeic and are taken from the oral teaching traditions for percussionists and dancers in India, but by 'Speaking In Tongues III' I had started to throw in more than a few of my own. I find that these pieces, by breaking up the time cycle as much as possible, give voice to the chatter in my head. To create something new it is necessary to delve into these uncomfortable realms on a regular basis. Real creativity cannot be smooth, attractive or productive all the time and I feel it is important to demonstrate this. Thus the 'Speaking In Tongues' pieces represent unpredictability and a form of chaos as an antidote to the strong melodic element in my other songs. Most drummers cannot play the subtle range of tones that can be accomplished by the human voice. As these vocal percussion pieces have been written specifically for my voice, they make a great start to a live performance.
ABoneCroneDrone 3
The 'ABoneCroneDrone' tracks are attempts at a strategy to lure the listener into hearing, as I do, the living symphony of harmonics present within the simplest of drones. These harmonics form intricate random patterns of notes which are never the same twice, and which trick your mind into creating melodies that aren't really there in order to make sense of them. On this track the vocals had to be simple enough to point towards the harmonics and not to obscure them too much, and the production subtle enough to place perhaps a dozen layers of enhancements - for example using filters or hidden notes - to lead an unskilled ear into this delicate area. Once gained, these listening skills are enough to open up a new level of musicality in any organic sound. Steve's random clusters of 'piano clouds' throughout, and Paul James' layered bagpipe drones which arise like a heat haze at the end of the piece, are highlights for me.
Nana
This is a version of the Manuel de Falla lullaby which was sung to him by his nurse and which he arranged for piano and voice. It is normally sung in that rather 'plummy' operatic fashion, but I wanted to bring it back to its roots and reinstate the strongly implied drone. Its influences are probably Moorish and Celtic, and so similar are the structures of those musics to the Indian tradition that it is not surprising that the song works well in this context. On 'Weaving My Ancestors' Voices' it segues into a piece I wrote to compliment it called 'The Dreaming' which takes up the promise of 'Nana'. It's as though the child has fallen asleep and entered that realm.
Waiting
Steve (Coe) wrote the lyrics to 'Waiting' after listening at the sound desk to my fifth live concert. He found himself so caught up in the energy of the vocal that his own throat was moving in response and all the chatter was driven from his mind. He wrote a poem to me to tell me of his experience: "The blood red lullaby is rocking my throat, my whole being trembles in dumb mimicry." We decided to make it into a song because it so accurately described the way I, too, had felt - that a force was moving through me, that I was being sung, that I was simply remaining present and actively waiting.
Sacred Stones
The sound of a single voice has long held a religious and mystical connotation, perhaps because it symbolises the essential loneliness of the human experience. Gregorian plainsong and early Vedic chanting in temples (which later gave rise to the much more elaborate raga system) are two of the religious musical traditions which recognise this and they are very easy to marry. As an extra touch, the first three notes (ie drone, fifth and octave notes) of this track are the little 'prayer' or invocation that reverently begins and ends many Indian classical singers' daily practise sessions. The ancient cathedrals of Europe echo the multi-pillared halls in the temples of South India, whether it's in the exquisite intricacy of their respective stonework or simply the resonance which their cavernous interiors wrap around a voice.
ABoneCroneDrone 1
'ABoneCroneDrone' is the most challenging album of the trilogy because it demands a whole and meticulous attention from the listener in order to give up its secrets. It is almost a piece of performance art. The listener is part of the equation and, by choosing the acoustic conditions in which the album is listened to, is able to actually influence what will be heard and what will remain hidden for another time. The listener can therefore become a co-creator.
Lagan Love/Nada Brahma
The 'Nada Brahma' expression vocal section in this track was first recorded as part of a twenty-seven minute piece on my fourth solo album of the same name, released on Indipop in 1985.
Blacksmith
An old favourite from my warm up sessions and one of the first folk songs I ever learned. Along with 'Lagan Love', it was a piece developed as part of my solo voice and drone concerts, but was hitherto unrecorded.
|