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, you also appeared on The Voice more than ten years ago, The Voice UK, Ruchel.
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.
03:48That's amazing.
03:51This is Mankunto Mawla.
03:52This is Mankunto Mawla.
03:53Hello.
03:53Oh
03:58Oh, no.
03:59Oh, no.
04:00Oh, no.
04:01Can't take it.
04:02Oh, and she is.
04:03I know.
04:04I know.
04:05I know.
04:06I know.
04:07I know.
04:08I know.
04:09I know.
04:10I know.
04:11I know.
04:12I know.
04:13The lyrics are in various languages, including Urdu and Punjabi.
04:18Yeah.
04:19People who don't understand the words are deeply moved.
04:20Some people have said that they cry, they're moved to tears all the way.
04:23Through your performances.
04:25You've sold out venues across the UK, including.
04:28The Royal Albert Hall.
04:29Can you tell us a little bit about what the songs are about?
04:32What are they singing about?
04:33No, no.
04:34So it's.
04:35It's.
04:36No, no.
04:37So it's.
04:38It's 700 or 700 year old poetry, which, which.
04:43speaks about Sufism.
04:45And if you look at the lyrics.
04:48At face value.
04:49They almost seem like love songs, but really the beautiful thing about Sufism.
04:53poetry is there's a reflection of the relate one's relationship with.
04:58God.
04:59And a lot of the poetry speaks to that.
05:01It's very personal and really beautiful.
05:03And just written.
05:04Um.
05:05In a way that's very free and.
05:06Yeah.
05:07Yeah.
05:08There's, there's a lot of poetry by a really incredible Punjabi poet called Baba Bullish.
05:13which really, uh, I think it's the most plural form of, of.
05:18religious poetry you can find.
05:19It speaks of how.
05:20Some people go to temples.
05:21Some people go to mosque.
05:22Some people go to churches.
05:23But we're all finding the same thing within ourselves.
05:27And that's what's captured in the music.
05:28Yeah.
05:29Something very important message today.
05:31Yeah.
05:32Today's work.
05:32cultural bloating in the world.
05:33Aber you are one of the few women, um, leading a Kualien career.
05:37What is palienая of this whole concept of deb water?
05:38What is paliena on stage?
05:42shamiki?
05:43Um, it looks paliena.
05:50And, uh, for me that's been bendy.
05:57It's the most recent.
06:01resistance like this be it from you know Abby being a woman or for example us introducing okay
06:06elements but it's so dwarfed by how much warmth and positivity
06:11we've experienced from different audiences around the world that as long as we
06:16ignore that stuff and pay attention to it we just keep going but she'll talk to us then about how you do
06:21approach the music this music that centuries old and when you approach it what's your
06:26first instinct then is it preservation is it reinterpretation or is it
06:31having a conversation with the past it's interesting it it it is having a common
06:36conversation with the past I think to a degree I think it's always important with
06:41these kinds of really really central spiritual
06:46texts that that are so important to the culture that you really preserve the essence
06:51of what makes them spiritual when you're when you're doing it and that's really an intuitive
06:55thing I can't
06:56say that there's a technical list of things that I go through in my mind when I'm writing you know you know
07:01whether the your whether that that essence is still within it when you listen to it
07:04I want to listen to another
07:06piece that you did now I was wondering if you could introduce it for us and tell us a bit more about it
07:10ga ah
07:11and ga ah is a piece that was it's an old Punjabi
07:16um poem which the melody was composed by one of our double players Amrit Dufar
07:21um and it's the meaning is come home coming home okay let's take a listen
07:26listen to that
07:27listen to that
07:28listen to that
07:29listen to that
07:30listen to that
07:31listen to that
07:32listen to that
07:33listen to that
07:34listen to that
07:35listen to that
07:36listen to that
07:37listen to that
07:39listen to that
07:40listen to that
07:41listen to that
07:42listen to that
07:43listen to that
07:44listen to that
07:45listen to that
07:46listen to that
07:47listen to that
07:48listen to that
07:49listen to that
07:50listen to that
07:51listen to that
07:52listen to that
07:53listen to that
07:54listen to that
07:55listen to that
07:31Oh
07:36Oh
07:41Oh
07:46Oh
07:48Oh
07:50Oh
07:51Oh
07:54Arusha you've said your most
07:56spiritual experiences have been while
07:58playing Kawali
08:00Abi you've seen
08:01it's not really me singing I'm allowing something greater to move through me this week
08:06I'm you're going to be performing in the cell player tell us what it's like then when you're in this
08:11sort of venue a big venue with all this audience and you're experiencing such a personal spiritual
08:16moment
08:17to be honest I'm sure
08:20if
08:21anyone comes to watch me perform most of the time I have my eyes closed so to me it doesn't really matter where we
08:26are we could be you know in a very small performance space or the Royal Albert Hall
08:31to me it always is the same because I'm you know just focused in on something else
08:36Yeah I think I mean performances can go one of two ways if it's all going swimmingly well
08:41you can kind of let go and really experience it but I'd say it's
08:46moments within the performance where that really really all comes together and and you can
08:51you can you can feel that connection
08:53and it's also our team
08:55and it's also our team
08:56it's just such a close-knit beautiful group of people that you know we're just so fortunate to be with
09:01um yeah absolutely no no no no no no it's also really handy to
09:06it's really wonderful that we can play with local musicians so we're playing with orchestral musicians from France
09:11so we'll rehearse with them today and tomorrow and then we'll perform with them which is the wonderful thing about
09:16the project wherever we go we play with the orchestra that's based there and that's
09:21really and you've talked about the Royal Albert Hall where you played now you're playing at this very classical
09:26prestigious venue the cell play out what does that mean to bring your music there
09:31I mean I I love the idea of us expanding our deaf and deaf
09:36definition of what we consider to be classical music expanding our definition of the canon in that sense
09:41because this is Indian classical music or South Asian classical music and that's
09:46widely considered to be a really predominant classical form and I think for
09:51a lot of us including Abbey when we hear it that's what classical music means to us so
09:56love the idea of considering it as classical music as well in that sense yeah it's important well we always end our shows
10:01our guest's cultural pick of the moment what have you chosen for us um
10:06so we've picked songs of the bauble which is a dance piece by the extraordinary dancer
10:11Akash Odedra and it's on tour at the moment around the world so in the clip that you saw of
10:16Akash Odedra he was the dancer within it and it's a piece that he has put together
10:21that it's again it's a Sufi piece and it and it's um a dance theater piece which is
10:35you
10:26really really beautiful it combines orchestral music with it and it tells the story of a bird these
10:31these Sufi birds used to be captured and caged and made to sing these beautiful songbirds
10:45you
10:36and their plight would get worse and worse and worse and as their plight got worse their song
10:39got more and more beautiful and that's
10:41what the dance piece is about um and i won't say any more other than i really really
10:46would recommend going to see it it's very special you composed the music for it yeah i wrote the music
10:49for it but that's not why i'm plugging it
10:51no the images are beautiful
10:54she's incredible
10:56so we're going to leave you then with songs of the bulbul which is on tour until march including
11:01at the city
11:01opera house at the end of january abby and ruchel thank you so much for coming and joining us on
11:06france 24 it's been a real pleasure um the orchestral kawali project will perform at the south
11:11plight this wednesday the 28th of january thanks for watching see you next time
11:16you
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