The Leaf Label

August 16th, 2022

Sarathy Korwar – KALAK

Sarathy Korwar returns with new album KALAK. The follow up to the politically charged, award-winning More Arriving is an Indo-futurist manifesto – in rhythmic step with the past and the present, it sets out to describe a route forward. It celebrates a rich South Asian culture of music and literature, which resonates with spirituality and community, while envisaging a better future from those building blocks.

Recorded at Real World Studios with meticulous production by New York electronic musician, DJ and producer Photay, who translates these communal rhythms and practices into a timeless and groundbreaking electronic record. There’s a spirituality and warmth at play in the polyrhythms, group vocals and melodic flourishes.

The KALAK rhythm is the fulcrum upon which the 11-track project balances. After an intense period of reflection and note-making, Korwar boiled this down to the circular KALAK symbol.

“The discourse around futurism is often deeply rooted in Eurocentric ideas of the world,” Korwar explains. “Much like Afro-futurism, Indo-futurism is moving the focus to the global south. In South Asia, culturally, we envisage our relationship to the future and the past in ideas of cyclicality. For example, karma as a concept. Time doesn’t have to flow in a line but can be understood to flow in a circle.

“In music, there’s an inherent hierarchy when you talk about left to right and top to bottom. I started thinking about a rhythmic notation system that was circular. These patterns started forming over time, and the more I thought about that, and the kind of symbolism that they began to have, I realised that this would be the core of the record.”

Lead single ‘Utopia Is A Colonial Project’ is accompanied by a nocturnal, neon-lit dance video by Elliott Gonzo (Perfidious Productions), starring award-winning choreographer/dancer Botis Seva. Based on Thomas More’s book from 1516, Korwar takes the idea of this imagined land of perfection and flips it on its head.

“Utopia can be seen as a diagram for colonisation,” Korwar says. “Ideas of utopia are intrinsically linked to the mindset of settler colonialism. It comes from seeing the natural world as an inanimate resource rather than a living, sentient being. We need to be anti-utopian, and anti-dystopian. We need to be able to imagine futures drastically different to the kind of ‘utopias’ that are being sold by right-wing populist politicians in South Asia and beyond.”

The final part of the KALAK project is realised in the cover artwork by New Delhi-based designer Sijya Gupta. Korwar and photographer friend Fabrice Bourgelle took a light sculpture of the KALAK symbol on a road trip around Southern India, through Chennai, Pondicherry and Auroville. The evocative shots appear on the cover of the various formats, with each one offering a different angle on the country, continent and culture that inspired the album.

KALAK will be released on November 11th in three vinyl editions (on black, dark green and, for a special Dinked Edition, crystal clear vinyl with rotating card KALAK rhythm wheel) and a CD, each featuring a different cover image. All formats include an 8-page booklet, created by Sijya Gupta, with Korwar’s notes on the concepts behind the project. There are exclusive T-shirt and cork/rubber turntable mat bundles available on Bandcamp.Pre-order/pre-save here.