KALAK

Sarathy Korwar is doing for contemporary British-Asian music what Talvin Singh achieved almost 30 years ago – taking Indian rhythms, Western dance beats, jazz and electronica to create a new ancient/futuristic hybrid that is in step with the past but maps out a bold route forward. Growing up in India, he began playing the tabla at the age of ten before moving to London to continue his studies at SOAS and made his debut album, Day to Day, in 2016.

KALAK – the title derives from a Hindi/Urdu word meaning both ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Tomorrow’ – is the follow-up to 2019's More Arriving and feels like his major statement, as if everything he had previously achieved was preparation for this record, which Korwar describes as ‘an Indo-futurist manifesto.’ Astonishingly, it was recorded in just a day-and-a-half at Real World Studios with a small group including The Comet Is Coming's Danalogue on synths, Tamar Osborn on sax and vocals by Melt Yourself Down's Kushal Gaya and the Mumbai-based Noni-Mouse. Yet you can hear that a lot of work went into post-production with New York electronic DJ/producer Photay and Sarathy Korwar layering the sound into these urgent, widescreen, technicolour Indo-jazz sound paintings.