00:00You
00:10Hello, thanks for joining us today on Arts24, a musical tradition.
00:15Born more than 700 years ago, finds new life on the world's great concert stage.
01:03I'm delighted to welcome Abby and Ruchel to Arts24.
01:06Thank you for being here.
01:07I love you to be here.
01:08It's a pleasure to have you.
01:10You know, Abby, you trained in Carnatic classical music from...
01:13..South India.
01:14You also appeared on The Voice more than ten years ago.
01:17The Voice UK.
01:18.
01:18you're self-taught. You were working in a law firm when this all began.
01:23It was.
01:23Tell us how this project started and so I have.
01:28As soon as I heard Kawali music, which was probably about 15 years ago, I completely fell in love.
01:33And I was just singing it for the sheer love of it.
01:38And then I met Ruchel Ranjan.
01:41I was singing it in a more traditional sense, which is.
01:43I was a singer, backing vocals and a tabla.
01:47But when I met.
01:48He had this idea that, you know, it would be so beautiful if we brought orchestral elements.
01:53So he kind of wrote and composed new scores to sit behind.
01:58This music, well, not even sit behind it, you know, sit there with it.
02:03He's just reimagined the art form completely.
02:06Yeah.
02:07And what was it about you that grips...
02:08Thank you so much for this music.
02:10It's really difficult to say because it...
02:13And I experienced this with audiences as well, people who are unfamiliar with the music and the lyrics.
02:18And the meanings, which is exactly the place I was in when I first heard it.
02:22And it just...
02:23It has this really transcendental ability to take people on this spiritual...
02:28It's like other forms of spiritual music from around the world.
02:32When you go and listen...
02:33When you listen to the carols or when you listen to other gospel music, you immediately feel that.
02:38There's a sense of divinity within it and I can't...
02:40I still haven't quite put my finger on why, but it gripped me and then...
02:43It's uplifting.
02:44Yeah.
02:45It just took me from there.
02:46And it entered the world during lockdown, this project.
02:48When your interpretation of the 700-year-old's song, Man Cunto Molo...
02:53went viral.
02:55Millions of people watched it.
02:56And why did it strike such a...
02:58record at that time, that song, do you think?
03:01It...
03:02I think it was.
03:03Go on, go on.
03:03I think it was also the time that it was released.
03:06I mean, we released it in January just before lockdown.
03:08And...
03:08A, it's such a well-known piece, even within communities and outside.
03:13But it was just a new take on it, the dancer, the...
03:18orchestral elements, just...
03:20Yeah.
03:21And it had no right to.
03:23It was like...
03:2313 minutes long.
03:24So if you speak to any record label executive, they'll say...
03:2713 minutes is far too long.
03:28But it just seemed to resonate with people.
03:31And then Coca-Cola picked it up and used it as their soundtrack.
03:33for their Ramadan campaign for a little while.
03:36And it just kind of went from there.
03:37But we had no...
03:38We had no idea.
03:39We put it up on our little YouTube channel and then it just kind of...
03:42That's amazing.
03:42Well, let's have a listen.
03:43To remind our viewers, this is Mankunto Mawla.
03:48Mankunto Mawla.
03:53Oh
03:58I'm sorry.
03:59I'm sorry.
04:00I know.
04:01Can't take a fool.
04:02I'll share it.
04:03I'll share it.
04:03Oh
04:08All of that is welcome, all of that is welcome.
04:13The lyrics are in various languages including Urdu and Punjabi.
04:18Yet people who don't understand the words are deeply moved. Some people have said that they cry, they're moved to tears all the way.
04:23Through your performances, you've sold out venues across the UK including...
04:28...the Royal Albert Hall. Can you tell us a little bit about what the songs are about? What are they singing about?
04:33No, no, so it's...
04:38It's 700-year-old poetry which...
04:43... speaks about Sufism and if you look at the lyrics...
04:48...at face value, they almost seem like love songs. But really, the beautiful thing about Sufism...
04:53... is there's a reflection of one's relationship with...
04:58...lover in their relationship with God. And a lot of the poetry speaks to that.
05:01It's very personal and really beautiful.
05:03...and just written...
05:05...in a way that's very free.
05:07Yeah.
05:08There's a lot of poetry by a really incredible Punjabi poet called Baba Bullesh.
05:13...which really, I think it's the most plural form of poetry.
05:18...of religious poetry you can find. It speaks of how...
05:21...some people go to temples, some people go to mosques.
05:23Some people go to churches, but we're all finding the same thing within ourselves.
05:27And that's what's captured.
05:28...in the music.
05:29Yeah, something very important message today.
05:31Yeah.
05:32In today's world.
05:33You are one of the few women leading a Kowali Ensemble.
05:38A tradition has been historically dominated by men.
05:41Have you faced any resistance?
05:43What's it been like?
05:44No, I don't think I have.
05:45I think, you know, people have really welcomed us.
05:48...with open arms and with...
05:50...it hasn't really been anything that I've...
05:53...personally come up against.
05:55So we're just really lucky and fortunate that way.
05:57I think...
05:58I mean, we find forms of resistance like this, be it from...
06:03...you know, Abby being a woman or, for example, us introducing orchestral elements.
06:06But it's so dwarfed.
06:08...by how much warmth and positivity we've experienced from different audiences around.
06:13...the world that as long as we ignore that stuff and pay attention to it, we just keep going.
06:18But you should talk to us then about how you do approach the music, this music that centuries...
06:23...and when you approach it, what's your first instinct then? Is it preservation?
06:28Is it reinterpretation? Or is it having a conversation with the past?
06:33It's interesting. It is having a conversation with the past, I think, to a degree.
06:38I think it's always important with these kinds of really, really...
06:43...central spiritual texts that are so important to the culture.
06:48...that you really preserve the essence of what makes them spiritual when you're doing it.
06:53And that's really an intuitive thing.
06:55I can't say that there's a technical list of things that I've got.
06:58...that I go through in my mind when I'm writing.
06:59You know, you know whether that essence is still within.
07:03...when you listen to it.
07:04I want us to listen to another piece that you did, and I was wondering if you could introduce it.
07:08...for us and tell us a bit more about it.
07:10Ga-ah.
07:11And Ga-ah is...
07:13It's a piece that was...
07:14It's an old Punjabi poem, which the melody was...
07:18...composed by one of our double players, Amrit Dufar.
07:21And it's...
07:22The meaning is...
07:23...come home, coming home.
07:24Okay.
07:25Let's take a listen to that.
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