باتوں میں گیت - Songs in conversation

باتوں میں گیت (Songs in conversation) is an extended play music record that explores our shared stories and human connection through sampled conversations and poetry. The artist explores music composition as a medium to reflect and respond to the recorded conversations and poetic works. 

Engaging with conversations and poetry on topics of life, hope, home, love and friendship, this project is an attempt to create story driven music that strikes an emotional cord in its audience and immerses them in its narrative. 

As the project explores our shared experiences and stories, the artist collaborated with people he has never met before in his life and recorded their stories, conversations and poetry to feature in this project. The participants in this project have never met each other but their stories are similar. This project is a celebration of the bond they share with each other, the bond the artist shares with them and the bond all of us share with each other on a deeper level. 

The continuous mix of the EP is shared below.

To record participants the artist would move between Washington Square Park and Union Square Park and randomly approach people to talk to. All participants were aware that they were being recorded and had consented to be a part of this project. Once the recordings were complete, the participants had the option to retract parts of their recordings or revoke consent. Some participants who allowed me to use their recordings decided to remain anonymous and are not named in the project.

This project features 4 tracks. The track list is below.

HOPE – As an Artist (Ft Eric Ajama)
HOPE – A Place Like Home (ft Abhik, Ritu Damani and others)
HOPE x Jmeela – بارش کا سفر (ft Zain Murtaza Maken)
HOPE – We became one (Outro)

This record will publicly release on all major platforms later this year (2023). To stay updated, you can connect with me here.

Visuals

The visuals in this project have been developed by me. They are intentionally minimal to keep the focus on the audio narrative. All visuals are inspired by rain, بارش. The narrative of the third track بارش کا سفر (The Journey) is about the journey of a rain droplet. This journey is also a metaphor for life in this case and in a poetic sense ties into all the stories shared in the previous songs.

Special thanks to Eric Ajama, Abhik, Ritu Damani and everyone who shared their stories with me.
Special thanks to Zain Murtaza Maken for sharing his poetry with me and trusting me with their art.
Special thanks to Jmeela for collaborating with me on بارش کا سفر (The Journey)