Glorious Sun Video Clip. An excerpt from the Laya Project DVD. Laya Project is a musical and visual journey through coastal and surrounding villages in the path of the December 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Myanmar and Maldives.
In the lonesome voice of a Sri Lankan fisherman or a Thai market seller’s flute vibrate sorrow and substance, heart and hope. The reverberations of the 2004 tsunami along the Indian Ocean coasts, as expressed in the everyday music of ordinary people, have global resonance, sounds that can connect and inspire.
Putting these sounds into the innovative hands of global DJs, A New Day: Laya Project Remixed reveals fresh facets and possibilities, as tablas lock into the perfect dub and overlooked voices intertwine with sinuous bass or bouncing, joyful breakbeats.
“We really wanted to spark an emotional reaction, while still being very respectful of the people involved,” explains Laya Project director and producer Sonya Mazumdar. “The remixes add another, rich dimension, to help those outside these communities to connect.”
To create connection, the remixers on A New Day were recruited for their keen ears for global music and their experience working thoughtfully to blend tradition and digital production, beats and soul. This was of crucial importance to EarthSync, the team that had dedicated years to produce a fitting tribute to the peoples in coastal communities from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, India, and Myanmar (Burma).
Recorded on site during impromptu sessions over the course of more than two years in dozens of overlooked areas, this music spans national, ethnic, and religious boundaries. The remixes, staying true to the tracks’ spirit, span genres and sounds, embracing other elements to shed new light on the Project’s mission: to reveal the joy, creativity, and strength of the everyday people who had faced the trial and heartbreak of the tsunami.
On a beach, a fisherman pours his heart into a love song for his wife, taken by the sea. A worn but beautiful woman, at first shy and retiring, sings an unexpectedly passionate welcome. A couple selling trinkets to sun-hungry tourists opens an arresting trove of traditional instruments and plays them with astounding zeal.
On the shores of great tragedy and destruction, the sounds and images of the Laya Project reveal an abundance of life-affirming music made by ordinary villagers, sounds from coastal communities affected by the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, India, and Myanmar (Burma). Recorded on site during impromptu sessions over the course of more than two years in dozens of overlooked areas, the interwoven songs and tunes that became the Project span national, ethnic, and religious boundaries and reflect a unifying triumph of human resilience and creativity.
Envisioned as a response to the tsunami, the epic journey of the Project—envisioned from the start as both a 2-CD set and a documentary film—was initiated and entirely supported by friend and patron of music arts Sastry Karra, who along with the many dedicated members of the multi-national team behind the Laya Project, felt they needed to do something more than simply provide material relief. “While the massive aid that came in addressed the basic crisis of food, clothing, and shelter,” Project director and producer Sonya Mazumdar recalls, “there was little assistance for music or the local performing arts, which form the cultural spine of villages in rural communities of the region.”
At a dargah (Islamic shrine) situated in the south-east part of India, the singers sing devotional songs in the Qawwali style, with percussion accompaniment. The lyrics are a mix of the local south Indian language, Tamil and Arabic, while the music style is that of northwestern India.
Laya Project is a musical and visual journey through coastal and surrounding villages in the path of the December 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Myanmar and Maldives.
The music in this production is of and by the people of the coastal communities, recorded and brought back to the studio to create a composition that mixes and enhances the original recordings, bringing out the essence of the countries and people.
