Whatever he touches – whether that be composing for Sir David Attenborough’s Green Planet, creating immersive sound installations at Kew Gardens or vocally recreating birdsong and natural environments – sound artist and composer Jason Singh brings sensitivity, nuance and soul. With diverse collaborations that include George Ezra, Rokia Traore, Sarathy Korwar, Talvin Singh and Shabaka Hutchings, his work is an ongoing exploration of the natural world and music technology. Travellers, with The Banwasi Collective is Singh’s latest undertaking; an exciting project from an artist who we’ve come to expect anything but the ordinary.

Although UK-based, Jason Singh has an intimate and complex relationship with India. His own family were forced to flee India during the Partition of 1947 and his grandmother, given the atrocities she had witnessed at the time, firmly warned her children and grandchildren never to return. Jason did return though, accompanying his parents on the pilgrimage to Dharamsala, India, at the age of five, then going back as an adult when he encountered the Manganiyar community of Rajasthan. In the stories, rhythms and songs of these travelling pedlars of music, Singh discovered a deep commonality with the bhatra sanghat. Singh is himself a part of a community of Sikhs who migrated to the UK, who share linguistic, musical and professional links with the Manganiyars. In the dholak drums of Rajasthan, featured throughout this album, Singh heard the rhythms and touch he knew from the tabla players (the ragis) he’d encountered in the gurudwaras of East London. He has been unfolding the layers of his musical, spiritual and familial connections to the Indian subcontinent ever since, and this album, dedicated to John and Faith Singh, is a significant recognition of this continuous journey.