Tanya Sujan | BeatCurry Team
The collaborative effort of a couple from the West, the Anglo-Swiss singer Tanya Wells and Brazillian guitarist Paulo Vinicius called Seven Eyes is revisiting Hindustani classical music from a fresher perspective and planting its seed globally.
‘Seven Eyes’ is derived from the inspirational idea of exploring different perspectives, genres, and cultures in music. They are best known for their ability to inculcate various languages and different music in a single track/performance. Wells is a trained Hindustani classical vocalist and has a double Masters in International Performance Research and so is her beau, Paulo, who has been trained by Pablo Marquez, Franz Halász and Fabio Zanon, some of the world’s renowned classical guitarists.
Wells has had the opportunity to collaborate with various famed artists including sitarist Anoushka Shankar (Cannes Film festival 2014), soul singer Joss Stone (Mama Stones 2013), Arabic vocalist Natacha Atlas (Ronnie Scotts 2016) as well as lay down vocals for award-winning film composers such as A.R. Rahman and Nitin Sawhney.
With perfect Urdu diction and pronunciation of Wells and mesmerizing guitar work by Vinicius, this duo has given some immaculate live performances in various countries including India, Pakistan, UK, Europe, North America and, Middle-East. They also regularly showcase their talent on BBC Asian Network, BBC Urdu, and BBC World.
They were also featured at the prestigious Rekhta Foundation’s cultural festival ‘Jashn-e-Rekhta’ in Delhi back in December 2017. Here is the rendition of Farida Khannum’s golden ghazal, “Aaj Jaane Ki Zidd Na Karo” (Don’t Insist on Leaving Today) performed at this festival:
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Their two albums, The Seed and Senses, is a perfect amalgamation of diverse genres, making one feel like they’re traversing the world one soundtrack at a time. A noteworthy track of the album ‘Senses’ is ‘Return’, a duet with Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan. Sung in Raag Pahadi, it is a bilingual song expressing the sentimental and nostalgic feeling of returning home. The song is a fusion of Raag Pahadi, English and a thumri passed down in Ustad’s family.
It is heartwarming to see international artists picking up not only the language but the formal training as well as the culture. Here’s more from Seven Eyes:
The coming together of the East and the West in a harmonious musical blend proves to be hopeful not just for the golden music of India but also for various genres and cultures as well.
If you’d like to know more about the unique and versatile forms and flavours of music,
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