Praveen Sharma has been making music for most of his life, and has contributed releases to AI, Neo Ouija, and Expanding Records. He also runs Percussion Lab, a hub for underground electronic music and exclusive DJ sets, in addition to being an avid live performer and event organizer in New York City.
Praveen released his debut Backed by Spirits on the now-defunct Neo Ouija imprint in early 2005. Not long after, Praveen returned from a profound journey through his family’s native India with a minidisk full of field record- ings and voices, forming the basis of Song Spun Simla, his second album released with Benoit Pioulard, on NYC’s Music Related Records.
Songs Spun Simla is named in honor of the village in India from which Praveen’s family originates – it’s inseparable from his musical inspirations yet still distant and shaped largely by memory. His compostions exist on a fitting scale, then; from the stunning, expansive lead-in of “Death as a Man” to the incredibly detailed percussion of “To Scale”, there’s a sense of worldliness, history and nostalgia placed in a crucible with technology and innovation. Much like a travel- ogue, the six movements of Songs Spun Simla abut soaring highs with passages of quiet, intimate beauty to create a deeply affecting whole. |
