Nitin Sawhney Talks Of His Journey From Beyond Skin To Immigrants

The age of unreason is upon us, but British- Indian musician and composer Nitin Sawhney demonstrates a world of co-existence by tirelessly creating more of his amorphous, borderless music.

- Nidhi Gupta

The Caucasian man in white kurta pyjamas in front of me is practically writhing in his seat. Champagne slopping around in his flute, he’s moved from a cross-legged position into one where both feet are planted on the ground, his shoulders and torso rippling as Nitin Sawhney and band bring their track “Homelands” to its crescendo. He isn’t the only one: The rapture is shot through the semi-circle of Sawhney’s audience at the Kila in Vana, Dehradun, this winter evening.

Sawhney, sitting on a high chair on a makeshift stage thrown over a drained pool, is on his own plane of ecstasy. To introduce the song, he’d told us half an anecdote about wondering why his parents – his father from Lahore, mother from Jalandhar – moved to the UK. “The real homeland is internal,” he’d said, “and until we realise this, we won’t find it.” That sombre note did not prepare us for the sheer joy the song carries. As Ashwin Srinivasan and Nicki Wells vocalise the seven notes of the Indian scale over a curtain of violin and tabla beats, Sawhney’s long fingers flutter expertly over an acoustic guitar, head bobbing along energetically, a giant grin on his face.

“Homelands” is the third song on Beyond Skin, Sawhney’s seminal 1999 album. Considered among the greatest records of the 20th century, it stood out for its syncretic mash of sounds and instruments from around the world – thumri meets country grooves, Bengali folk meets drum ‘n’ bass, rap meets Carnatic – as for its boldness and political acuity.