Sushma Soma with Aditya Prakash – Home (2022)
“Home” is the outstanding new album from Carnatic vocalist and composer Sushma Soma in collaboration with vocalist and producer with Aditya Prakash.
Although Sushma Soma is superb, award-winning singer specialized in Carnatic singing, Home presents a multifaceted facet of her vocal work, venturing into a wonderful world of vocal magic. Notably, Sushma uses a wide range of vocal techniques, including various overdubs, looped vocals, and spellbinding traditional Carnatic styles. She also engages in marvelous interaction with Aditya Prakash’s vocals.
As indicated earlier, “Home” highlights the voice even though you will also find musical instruments that provide a subtle and charming environment for the vocals to soar. Sushma sings in Tamil, Sanskrit, and Hindi.
Sushma Soma is passionate about protecting the natural world. In her own words: “Home began as an introspection of my relationship with nature and the environment. I was gutted as I witnessed and read about events unfolding around the world; from the pregnant elephant in India who fed on a pineapple loaded with firecrackers when she was caught in the human vs wildlife habitat conflict, to gorillas scrambling for their safety amidst armed militia violence, forest logging and poaching in the Congo, to the loss of indigenous plant and wildlife in the Amazon forest fires.
“I was also becoming increasingly bothered by the happenings in my own world; from the careless consumption of single use plastic, to blatant wastage of resources – the list goes on. As impacted as I was by all of these, I found myself struggling to reconcile my love for the natural world with my own everyday choices that seemed to contradict just that.
“When I started working on this project, I wanted to be the voice for the voiceless. However, I realise the irony in that. How can I be the voice of something when my very existence is a burden on the same? I can only be the voice for myself – for the wonderment, pain, conflict, shame, gratitude, and so much more that I feel towards this incredible planet – the only home we’ve known.
“I’ve had several conversations and discussions with people around me but words haven’t felt like enough. And that’s why I’ve turned to music, and specifically Carnatic music, where my training lies, to help me express all that I feel.
“This has been an eye-opening and important journey for me with Carnatic music. This is the first time I engaged with my form without letting my pre-conceived biases about the form influence my musical choices in the album; my notions that this genre is too niche, that it’s of the ancient or about divinity, and that it appeals to only a specific audience. This is the first time I let go of those notions and allowed myself to find conviction in the Carnatic form to emote the urgency with which I wanted to address this cause.
“In Aditya Prakash, I found not only a producer, but a mentor and co-creator whose artistry and investment in the project brought my vision to life. The album was born after several months of ideation, research, composing, learning and experimenting together. Despite having our own distinct musical styles, the ‘sound’ of the album is a composite one – one that has seamlessly blended our sensibilities, friendship and musical ideas. Aditya pushed me to explore my voice beyond my comfort levels to emote varying spectrum of emotions I felt for the cause.
“I truly hope for my music to play a small part in reminding us to live lives in which we, as an intelligent species yielding unparalleled power, can snap ourselves out of our apathy and complacency and act before our clock runs out.
“This album is my tribute to the beautiful, intricate, emotional and intelligent ecosystem we share together and a desperate plea to ourselves to save our incredible Home.”
The lineup on “Home” includes: Sushma Soma on vocals; Manu Delago on hand pan; Aditya Prakash on Vocals; Mythili Prakash on vocals; Rumi Prakash-Gollapudi on vocals; Kiran Gollapudi on vocals; N Guruprasad on ghatam; Pirashanna Thevarajah on morsing; Praveen Sparsh on percussion; V Prakash Ilaiyaraja on nadaswaram; N. Deepan on parai; N. Rajan on thamuru; M. Vijay on chatti; Fra Rustumji on violin; and Corentin Chassard on cello.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.