Susheela Raman: Women Make Music
Susheela Raman is a British singer and songwriter who has released seven studio albums to date, ranging from her debut ‘Salt Rain’ in 2001 which made the Mercury shortlist, and interwove elements of South Indian music with myriad other influences, to her most recent 2018 ‘Ghost Gamelan’ with a collaboration with musicians from Indonesia.
Susheela has performed worldwide, envisioning and curating some large scale multi-artist projects, such as ‘Sacred Imaginations’ at the Barbican in 2017. Susheela is now working with a core band based in the UK, working with new colleagues such as drummer Malcolm Catto and violinist Raven Bush and bassist Pete Bennie. The group are developing compositions based around English poetry, especially that of the famous visionary poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827).
Susheela says “Blake’s rebellious mysticism speaks to the importance of imagination and inner life as a kind of resilience against the increasing psychic pressures of technology, surveillance as environmental disorder, as well as identity politics, emboldened extremism and so on. In this moment when travel is so restricted it makes a lot of sense to drill deep into music and into musical relationships that are very much of this place and this moment. Blake has a kind of enchanted vision of the world which resonates with the sense we all have now of our complicated, busy lives being suddenly paused, making us more aware and appreciative of our surroundings. Perhaps my aim is to find a musical way to reflect that shift in consciousness.”