New Delhi Experimentalist Ravana Chats About His New Album ‘Evolution’
“My music needs your full attention,” he says in a video interview
New Delhi-based artist Ravana.
With over 15 years in making music and sounds, New Delhi producer Ravana now has the closest thing to a full-length album, with the release of the eight-track Evolution via Brooklyn’s Ceramic Records on July 1st.
To accompany the launch of Evolution — out in vinyl and digital formats — Ceramic Records partnered with India-based agency Reproduce Artists’ Rana Ghose to shoot and edit an interview. True to Ravana’s chaotic, often unpredictable and discomforting music, the seven-minute video interview filmed in New Delhi’s locales matches that energy.
In it, Ghose and Ravana are in conversation about everything from meat-eaters to happiness, the ego, imperialism and of course, making music without any compromise. “We’re just doing stuff for the heck of it,” Ravana tells Ghose during a rickshaw ride.
There are a few tangents that the interview pulls into, but for the most part, Ghose makes sure we see Ravana as a longstanding, uncompromising artist. The producer says, “I have basically made sure, that if you’re not listening to me properly, then you better not listen to me.” He likens his music to being food “you should have with all your concentration” and looks back at how dynamism is often a driving force for him to make music. “Even though I have the limitations of not being able to play any instruments, that can’t stop me from exploring stuff, and experiment with other sounds,” he tells Ghose.
While Ravana never thought about how his music would be perceived, Evolution is a indeed a journey that needs your full concentration, because that’s how it draws you in. Traversing electronica, drum and bass, noise and more, there’s also a disruptive aesthetic that’s continuing strong in all of Ravana’s work.
“Culture Shock” traverse a wide range, from calming santoor samples and classical vocals that give away to distorted, stretched tabla rhythms. There’s an old-school electronica and drum & bass approach to “Intelligence” and more dark, twisted renditions of India traditional music on “Revolution” featuring the vocals of activist-singer Bant Singh.
Ceramic plan to release two more records by Ravana in the next few years.
Watch the video below. Listen to ‘Evolution’ here.
