‘Aarambh’ new album by Abby V and Ricky Kej in Peaceful Radio Show 1568

Across continents and time zones, the young master vocalist Abby V and three-time GRAMMY-winning, Billboard #1 composer-producer, Ricky Kej have formed a friendship and a way of collaborating that yields musical magic. AARAMBH, a full-length album for the UK-based, South Asian-focused music media platform Sufiscore, finds the Toronto-based singer and Instagram and YouTube sensation lending his extraordinary voice to a vibrant set of Kej compositions, plus a fetching cover of Lennon & McCartney’s ‘Yesterday’ (with the accomplished Asad Khan on sitar). Joining Abby V on these tracks, which merge Indian classical music, electronica, strings, beat-based ambient music and other genres, is a star-studded roster of Indian vocalists to share in beautiful duets with the leading man.

“The heart of the album is traditional Indian classical music,” says the Bangalore-based Kej from the road in Nashville, Tennessee. “But the instrumentation is very modern — it’s in a palette that will appeal to people who listen to many kinds of music. We’re taking Indian classical music to listeners that would not normally listen to it.”

“A lot of my learning and training has been in Indian and Western Classical music,” says V. “I’ve sung in English, Latin, German, a lot of Hindustani and Carnatic music, and a lot of what I present online is an amalgamation of styles. I want to present it so it’s not restricted to a certain part of the audience. This album truly stands for that.”

Kej sings the praises of the illustrious guest vocalists gathered here: “KS Chithra [‘Payoji’] is a legend, a four-decade career with hit Bollywood songs and South Indian film songs, thousands of them. Jonita Gandhi [‘Rathiya’] is very popular and I’ve done two virtual concerts with her during the pandemic. Pratibha Singh Baghel [‘Kahe Satave’] is a traditional singer who has also worked with Sufiscore on her beautiful album Inheritance. Antara Nandi [‘Balama More’] is an Instagram sensation who sings classical music but also dance music, a very skilled vocalist and very young. Then there’s Sivaangi [‘Mangala Din’], who was on the South Indian reality show Super Singer and has diehard fans and a couple million followers. Sona Mohapatra [‘Ghule’] has a strong pop identity and sings a lot of Indian folk melodies — her voice is extremely recognizable to a lot of people. It was all about sending these singers files, speaking to them on the phone, telling them how many gigabytes to give us, how many variations, what kind of microphone to use. These people are all pros — the pandemic has taught us to record ourselves and be self-sufficient. Every one of them exceeded our expectations.”

Save for ‘Yesterday,’ with English lyrics that are known the world over, the songs of AARAMBH are in Hindi and rendered with deep, gripping expression. Benny Dayal, the accomplished Indian playback singer, who Kej praises for his ‘Bollywood meets Pharrell Williams vibe,’ is the sole male guest, finishing the album with ‘Kaga Jaa Re.’ “A lot of the songs are based on the Bandish style,” explains Kej, “a form of classical music with repetitive phrases and very romantic language in an older Hindi dialect.”

“Every time Ricky had a song ready I would approach it with a very raw perspective,” says V. “First I would just internalize the composition. I was lucky to be a part of it — the compositions took shape with a lot of my input, which Ricky would then incorporate into the song. With Ricky there’s so much room for the singer or any instrumentalist to come in with their thoughts and shape it in a way that relates to their experiences. The structure of the composition is intact, and Ricky’s vision is maintained, but he’s very open to me and all the singers expressing our own thoughts. My vocal performances aim to be a representation of my training, experience and background. I approached every track with my truest vocal sensibilities, through the ornamentation I add or the improvisational aspects like sargam or alaaps, or even incorporating syncopated jazz harmonies against an otherwise monophonic raga-based melody. Every line on the album reflects my artistic journey.”

There are bracing, virtuosic vocal improvisations, based on the sargam syllables of sa re ga ma pa dha ni sa’, on the tracks ‘Ghule,’ ‘Mangala Din’and ‘Kaga Jaa Re.’ Functionally these duo vocal flights are akin to a “blazing guitar solo” in Western music, says Kej. There’s also a certain harmonic mystery on songs like ‘Payoji,’ with “a male choir kind of sound that’s a little Gregorian in nature,” Kej adds. “The harmonies are not even what a Western classical choir is used to, with a slight jazz element, a slight Celtic element. It’s all the influences that I’ve had from film scoring to New Age music to Celtic music and choral music, bringing all those influences together to create a completely new sound.”

“I love experimenting with a lot of traditional forms of music and presenting them in new ways,” V adds in conclusion. “Music, including classical, is constantly evolving. I’ve always been taught to embrace these changes and expand the boundaries of creativity, and that’s exactly what we’ve attempted with this project. The beauty of it is that Ricky can bring all these elements together so beautifully and concisely. I’m so incredibly proud that we achieved this.”

Sufiscore is not just a traditional label but a YouTube channel amassing millions of views of songs from the Asian and South Asian markets. By celebrating new creative processes with leading musicians adapting to adversity as they continue to explore global fusion, Sufiscore is opening doors to international collaborations wherever musicians are in the world. Through live-syncing, remote recording and other practices, Sufiscore seeks to usher in new ways of making and consuming music online. In addition to the work of Abby V and Ricky Kej, Sufiscore has released such albums as Inheritance by vocalist Pratibha Singh and Unbounded – Abaad by sitar virtuoso Purbayan Chatterjee, who is joined by Singh as well as Béla Fleck, Gary Husband, Jordan Rudess, Zakir Hussain, Antonio Sanchez and more. ‘AARAMBH’ releases on the 24^th November internationally through Suficsore.