Sound Trippin

What is this album about?

Sound Trippin is an album compiled from the television show of the same name, where a song is put together with sounds inspired by a particular location in India. Each song is a collage of the unique auditory experience of that region – musical traditions, ambient sound and local voices - combined in a contemporary framework, in timeframes as short as four days.

Who is it by?

Sneha Khanwalkar is a young composer known for the strong rural Indian flavour in her contemporary compositions.

Why should listen to it?

Khanwalkar makes sense of the sound clutter that beseiges our ears when we walk along the streets of the cities and villages of India. For instance, Tung Tung is inspired by Punjab - the sounds include not just the full throated vocals of the Nooran Sisters and the beat of the dhol drum, it also includes a factory siren, a tractor motor and the voice of the commentator at the rural olympics in Qila Raipur. The very phrase, tung-tung, mimicks the sound of the local single-stringed tumbi instrument.

An edited version of the article was published in Culturama's October 2012 Issue.