3x Grammy-Award-Winner Ricky Kej once visited SVARAM, a part of the futuristic city of Auroville in India. The UN Goodwill Ambassador and 3x Grammy-Award-Winner, was amazed by the vision and the vibe of Auroville and the instruments of SVARAM. He generously offered the original material of the title track of his Award-Winning Album ‘Wonders of Life’ that he co-produced with the legendary drummer Stewart Copeland (The Police) to be re-imagined by SVARAM.
Marc Laurin volunteered at SVARAM over the course of 2022. Being a musician and sound engineer he was given the task of re-imagining Rickys piece.
What were your first thoughts when you were approached with this project?
When we received the raw audio material by Ricky I was very honoured to touch it. It is very special to exclusively be able to touch soothing audio tracks that have won Grammys. For me it was super-special to touch Stewart Copelands percussion. I’ve been listening to The Police since my teenage years and like most drummers have a huge fascination for his way with rhythm. I felt very grateful for working with these geniuses material.
What was the intention that you wanted to put in?
This was not alone for me to decide as it is a “SVARAM”-Remix. The team discussed a lot about it.
The original piece by Ricky is gentle and soothing. Nonetheless, compared to SVARAM-standards it was still quiet energetic. We concluded that with that remix we would want to create a meditative sound ride with that gently picks up people from their busy everyday lives and then gently puts them into a period of stillness. Just like the famous weekly Sound Baths by SVARAM at Unity Pavilion.
What were the challenges you faced?
In the beginning of the process when I showed my progress to the team we realized that there were different opinions about what SVARAM should sound like in the context of a so-to-say commercial production. SVARAM has its amazing distinct sounds, like the Swinging Chimes or the Pulse Tubes, the Sonic Stones etc. But just putting a bunch of SVARAM instruments in there did not seem to make it sound like SVARAM.
This caused team discussions about what actually is SVARAMs sonic identity. Meditative, Aluminum, ethnic, elemental, spatial dynamics, pulses as rhythm and minimalism were points that we could agree on.
But then how do you push such a wide range of identity attributes into a 5-minute conventional stereo-production?
I still don’t have a clear recipe but through some iterations with the team the remix reached a common ground of sonic identity that all of us were happy with.
So besides Swinging Chimes what instruments did the trick?
I can’t pin it down to single instruments. It is rather the way that the sound reaches all planes and all subtleties. The identity of SVARAM can easily be found when you put on your favourite headphones and dive in a deep listening session with the Remix.
I recorded more SVARAM instruments than I could recall now to blend them in or create new sonic spaces or objects within the remixed composition. Some stick out, like the Bush Rattles or the Tambura Santoor or the Sonic Stone in the beginning. Others just blend, like the Ocean Drum, Glasophone, Lithophone, Angle Chimes or the Sonic Bed. Also elemental sounds play a huge role at SVARAM. As this was a digital production I just placed nature samples like wind, birds and ocean waves in the background of the remix to make people feel like on an actual exploration. Also I pulled of some subtle spatial mixing magic so that the sounds fly around your head.
In total there are 20-25 SVARAM-Instruments in there. I encourage you to find them 😉
So the track should be listened to on headphones?
Oh yes, absolutely! Well the notion about trying to find all the instruments was a joke unless you really want to do that.
I recommend to just put on your headphones, find a comfortable sitting or lying position, relax and enjoy the ride to your inner center and from there back to to our shared reality.
What was the most fun part of the process?
Besides working with Rickys high-quality samples that instantly got me in the mood when I opened the computer it was Aurielios scribbles. Aurelios feedback and ideas were very helpful and inspiring during the process. Occasionally he flew in the studio, listened, and then wildly drew geometric shapes, hardly readable words, lines and arrows on the backside of some random printout.
This would be a “music score” for me to reproduce on the computer. This helped if I got stuck at a transition from one part to another or if a part lacked some liveliness or movement.
I had the best time when sonically manifesting his scribbles. They gave solid inspiration and vision, while at the same times offering so much freedom to work in.
Oh and when Ricky as a Grammy-Award-Winner did not have any musical or technical complaints after we send him the remix, that felt professionally very fulfilling.
How did you go about the video?
So Ricky gave green light for producing a video. For this I teamed up with Jakob. Jakob was another volunteer of SVARAM and at the time also my best friend at Auroville.
The music video should show the wonders of life in the context of Auoville and SVARAM. Their local craftsmanship, the beauty of simplicity and gentleness. We planned that it would be good to show the instruments involved, the SVARAM artisans at the workshop, who work everyday so that these instruments can make the world a more harmonious place. Also the video should show some Auroville nature to set the vibe.
We created a shooting schedule and got it all shot within 3 days. Which were among the most stressful days of our lives for Jakob and me because nothing was allowed fail. Jakob was about to fly back to Europe only 2 days after and the gear was rented. But we made it and sent the material to Ricky Kejs editor who merged our footage with footage from the original music video to create an immersive meditative visual experience.
Anything else you want to say?
Jakob and I were really humbled and grateful for being able to work together with such giants of the global music world and also grateful for SVARAM being such an open meeting ground for great people from different backgrounds to collaborate like this. It was a great adventure and seeing it being published is just most fulfilling.
About Marc
Marc Laurin is an Audionerd 🎛 making 🌊 for the 🌏 to be a happier📍
He has been volunteering at Svaram since December 2021.
He is currently completing an MS at Technische Universitat Berlin.
