Welsh Indian violinist Rakhi Singh has shared her hypnotic first single, Khuda’i – the title is taken from the Punjabi for excavation. It's one of three tracks on her debut EP Quarry, which is out via Bedroom Community on August 27.
The EP was developed between Singh’s home and an inspirational trip to Bedroom Community founder Valgier’s studio Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland.
“Quarry has a few different meanings for me," she reveals of the title. "Firstly as a physical space I find them powerful and captivating places and there are many near my family home in Wales that I always visit when home. The man-made craters in the landscape can be austere yet strong with all the striking shapes in the rocks that are a result of human and mechanical graft. They are places where I experience time in a different way as I see hundreds of thousands of years layered through the rock . The process of creation feels like I delve into an internal quarry to see what will be revealed in the layers of rock formation within myself.”
These first recordings represent a marker in the sand for Singh, the first steps of a journey of discovery; untethered from a score to see what emerges. The triptych Is inspired by the dialogue between hope and regret, loss and discovery and her love for her partner Seb Gainsborough (aka electronic composer Vessel).
Singh has firmly established herself as a violinist and leader of high repute, working for and alongside the likes of Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, Björk and guest leading ensembles including London Contemporary Orchestra, RLPO, CBSO, Hebrides Ensemble, Sinfonia Cymru.
Listen to Khuda’i below.
