TITLE
Asian Network Sound Design
CLIENT
BBC Asian Network
SERVICES
Sonic Branding
Bespoke Music Composition
Granny Eats Wolf were asked by the BBC Asian Network to create an authentic and unique palette of sound design for the radio station. One that celebrated British Asian culture and captured the DNA of South Asian music, but would work seamlessly with contemporary music.
Collaborating with three of the UK’s most outstanding musicians - Soumik Datta, Ranjana Ghatak and Sarathy Korwar, we captured the timbres and sounds of the Sarod, Tanpura and a multitude of Tabla’s and other Asian percussion instruments. We chose these instruments to give us a full range of frequencies and transients, that could be manipulated into modern sound design.
We recorded our musicians over two days at BBC Maida Vale studios and at Confetti Institute Of Technology in London (part of Nottingham Trent University).
Soumik Datta: “The Sarod is an instrument born out of a migration story. As a migrant - someone who's come over, has the dual psyche of having two homes, two languages, two cultures - the music that I make now is very much something that's come out of my own personal experience of having to embody two different states, two different cultures.”
“I thought the idea of the country's Asian network, having sounds that are authentic and made by British Asian musicians practicing and playing today, there was something important in that and so I needed to get involved.”
Soumik Datta playing the Sarod at BBC Maida Vale Studios
The team at Granny Eats Wolf selected these instruments to give our producers a full range of frequencies and transients, that could be manipulated into modern sound design. While the Sarod gave us beautiful high end sounds, the Tanpura became crucial to build rich, deep drones and subsonic sounds.
Ranjana Ghatak: “The Tanpura, made from pumpkin skin, is rooted in classical and semi classical music. It's an ancient instrument and it's a drone that plays the first and fifth note of the scale. It's played as a loop with the hands.”
“For me personally, it's a very grounding instrument. You feel very rooted and connected to the earth, and at the same time you can feel very connected to something outside as well. It has this ethereal quality to it, and even though it's only just playing two notes, you can hear all of these other harmonics and other notes coming out of it as well.”
Ranjana Ghatak with her female Tanpura at Confetti Institute London. She also played the male Tanpura.
“What’s special about this project is how we merged the traditional with the contemporary. We did just use samples from the internet. We started from scratch. There’s a DNA here.”
- Ahmed Hussain, Head Of BBC Asian Network
For impacts and whooshes, we needed sources with fast, punchy transients. While the tabla is rooted in North Indian/South Asian traditions, we sought an innovator willing to experiment with extended techniques (muted strokes, pressure bends, rim hits, and unconventional preparations) to push what this percussion can do.
Sarathy Korwar: “My music is a mishmash of jazz, electronic music, Indian classical music, folk music. I've been going through the various sounds and sound possibilities that each drum has to offer and recording them. I love how playful percussion instruments can be. I love how intuitive they feel to me personally, their tonality. I love that they're pitched instruments that have some amazing harmonics.”
“This project has allowed the imagination to take over and you start hearing these sounds outside of the tradition that they perhaps come from. I think it's all about breaking those rules and questioning those ideas of what follows the other.”
Sarathy Korwar at Confetti Institute London, who played three different types of Tabla, a Chenda and a Baya
Once captured, our team produced bespoke impacts, breakers, whooshes, risers, drones and other sound design elements using the recorded sounds as its core.
This sound design will feature across all of the furniture on the radio station. From trails to station imaging to be used as talkover elements in the radio shows.
