Santoor / Chorus

Eeshar Singh plays santoor with a Chorus tripod in the background

Some years ago now my daughter Freyja, who had been travelling in India, suggested to me that it would be great if I collaborated with musicians from the classical Indian tradition. It’s taken several years to make it happen but now thanks to the support of Graham Callister at Leicester City Council and the opportunity to collaborate with santoor player and composer Eeshar Singh via Darbar Arts we have a new version of Chorus ready (almost…) to go out into Market Street, Leicester for Light up Leicester (12-16/3/25).

Giant tripods with rotating speakers create orbits of sound and light in this stunning new collaboration between Ray Lee and Darbar Arts. This worldwide touring light and sound installation has been reimagined for Light Up Leicester to feature a fusion of Western classical minimalism and south Indian music, brought to life by young virtuoso Eeshar Singh.

Eeshar is a virtuoso on the santoor, the Indian version of a hammered dulcimer, played with hammers held between the players index and forefingers. When I heard Eeshar playing with tablas I was struck by how the percussive nature of the instrument would provide a perfect contrast to the drone based wall of sound that is Chorus in full motion. Here's a wonderful video of Eeshar from the Darbar Arts Festival playing Raag Kaunsi Kanada: https://youtu.be/R3NhdUu1W54?si=BMyB8mvE62HR2zjQ

We worked together for two days at 101 National Centre for Arts in the Public Realm in Newbury, where I had set up eight Chorus tripods so we could experience the effect of the rotating sound world of Chorus with the addition of a structured improvisation on the santoor. 

from our work in progress at 101

To make this work we had to discuss modes and ragas, seeing what tonality to base Chorus in and through our collaboration we structured a new version of Chorus that allowed Eeshar the room to demonstrate his beautiful santoor playing and to tell a story through sound by creating a sense of movement and progression through the 20 minute composition, integrating the sound worlds of Chorus and the south Indian classical music tradition that Eeshar has been immersed in.

In Leicester we will present a full set up of Chorus tripods together with the first touring presentation of my Circles of Light which premiered at the Brighton Festival in 2021. Eeshar has made a recording of his composition that will be integrated into the soundscape. Eeshar is an amazing musician to work with and I feel like I learnt a huge amount through our collaboration.