Jason Singh & Rais Khan

Line up

• Jason Singh (Voice, samplers)
• Rais Khan (Morchang (Jew's harp))

• country:
  United Kingdom
• region:
  Indian Subcontinent
• style(s):
  • Electronic
  • Acoustic
• label:
  not signed
• type:
  Band
• gender:
  male
• instrumentation:
  instrumental, vocal
• artist submitted by:
  Kawa Cultural Centre

Using his breath, voice and a range of samplers and loop pedals, Jason Singh can vocally recreate sound and music compositions mimicking a wide range of instruments, genres, atmospheres, wildlife, and abstract experimental sonic textures.
A prolific solo artist, Singh has also collaborated with artists such as Nitin Sawhney, Rokia Traore, Sebastian Rochford, Shabaka Hutchings and John Paul Jones to name but a few. He develops music projects for organisations such as the V&A Museum, Southbank Centre, PRS for Music foundation, Serious, National Portrait Gallery, BFI, Rajasthan International Folk Festival, Jaipur Literature Festival, Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival, The Sage Gateshead and the BBC., composes music for film, theatre, dance.

Rais Khan uses his breath, voice and mouth too and a Jew's harp : the morchang , a very popular instrument, played by the Manghaniyar, a traditional community of musicians from Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan.
He is a regular artist at Jaipur Virasat Foundation, performs across India and abroad with traditional musicians and collaborations such as Manghaniyar Seduction, Rupa and the April Fishes.

Rais improvises various ancestral rhythms and melodies which are then live reinterprated and manipulated by the creative Jason with the technology and the beatbox for a rare and subtil musical compositions and arrangements, drawn on ambient, traditional, hip hop, dubstep, folk, techno, house, drum and bass ...

The contemporary electronic music and ancient traditional acoustic sounds both blend together beautifully.

The duet has been well acclaimed accross India, as a part of Dharohar a collaboration of four years, initiated in 2007, caught on camera as part of the BBC 'Imagine' TV series and noticed by major newspapers like The guardian : Jason Singh, a charismatic beat-boxer from Manchester . We were particularly mesmerised by Raies Khan, who plays the Rajasthani morchang (similar to a Jew's harp). Sarah Phillips Saturday 11 September 2010