Exclusive Premiere: Arunachal Artist Chorun Mugli Pens ‘Tolo Kudu La’ for Travelers
The song is from his upcoming debut EP ‘Real’
Arunachal singer-songwriter Chorun Mugli.
In May 2018, Arunachalese singer-songwriter Chorun Mugli released a song in his native Nyishi language called “Kala Kala,” and the video skyrocketed to over a million views on YouTube. He still gets messages about it, even as it catapulted him to festival stages around the North East in the last two years. Mugli says about the track, “I feel extremely happy and blessed. People listening to my song and pouring their unconditional love and support, it encourages me to make more better music. The best part of this is it could connects various people from different parts of my state and my country despite the language barrier.”
Steadfast in his intent to present and preserve linguistic culture and folk music from Arunachal Pradesh, Mugli is working on his debut EP called Real, with the first track “Tolo Kudu La” releasing today. Translated into English as “To see above,” Mugli teams up with multi-instrumentalist Taba Sony, drummer Teji Toko and co-producer Haggai Rongmei (from indie rockers Yesterdrive) to sing from the perspective of a traveler amidst nature one fine day. “In the song, I’m singing about how I’ve started the journey from sunrise, till the stars made their presence by glittering into the sky, from mountains to plains and here I am still wondering how the length of river didn’t meet its end yet,” Mugli says.
Over easygoing folk that swells gradually, “Tolo Kudu La” has a music video directed by Mridu Mousam Neog via his production house Reelistic Media, starring 2019 Miss Arunachal winner and actor/model Roshni Dada. She’s essaying the role of a wide-eyed wanderer who travels and settles by a bonfire jam, where we see Mugli.
The track is taken from his upcoming EP Real, which covers sonic ground ranging from folk-rock (the festive “Jajin Ja”) to lo-fi (“Maiyyan”) and acoustic pop across four tracks. The title track specifically addresses the artist’s personal experiences of being “trolled on color” and body shamed since he was a child. “It has a message on good faith to people living on this planet to be kind and be real,” he says.
Watch the video for “Tolo Kudu La” below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1pOD0j2y8Q&feature=em-share_video_user&ab_channel=ChorunMugli
