Lifafa

Contemporary electronic music production has served to score the memories of a generation here in India, but with one element strangely absent – voice and vernacular. As Lifafa, Suryakant Sawhney has spent five years exploring uncharted terrain in this part of the world: electronic music that not only speaks in sonics, but also of words and meaning. The audience for this music is unknown.

Via an ongoing exploration of Hindi and Urdu, a constant refinement of his own production techniques, and his instinctive take on melody and cadence, this music – spiritual and sensual, familiar and alien – has caught the attention of audiences not just in urban, Anglicised India, but in less obvious corners of this country, and beyond. Undefined and yet familiar, it presents a compelling insight into what the future of music from this region could be.

To listeners, his music may pose as a heady post-modern take on 60s Bollywood, or a glazing tribute to classic disco, soul, electronica and RnB funk.