Didgeridoo and Overtones

Press Release

Didgeridoo and Overtones, a music album by the Nepali didgeridoo virtuoso, Salil Subedi has been released digitally across all major online platforms in January 2022. The album can be streamed or downloaded from Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Pandora, Deezer, and many other sites. The album tracks can also be accessed from Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

The album contains eight music tracks that are lively, energetic, contemplative, melancholic and amusing – this is the first time a Nepali musician has released overtone throat-singing and didgeridoo in fusion with classical vocals, tabla and Nepali folk music instruments like the sarangi, tungna, bamboo flute, madal, murchunga.

All the eight tracks are new compositions and improvisations. There are some improvisation parts that happened spontaneously in the studio too. These spontaneous parts show each of the collaborating musician’s influences and cultural forms which makes it a special treat to the ear and musicality. The tracks have been recorded either as a session or recorded live with two or more musicians together.

The closing number Breath and Beat is a live recording of the didgeridoo and the tabla, that the two friends in musical sync, Salil and Navaraj nailed on a single take.

The featured artists include a blend of established senior and contemporary musicians: tabla virtuoso Navaraj Gurung and popular contemporary artists – singer Sujata Verma, sarangi player Manish Gandharva, rhythm player Jagannath Dhaugoda JD, members of Shree Tara band Sujina Bajracharya and Rojina Dangol playing Sarangi and flute and Mukut rock band members Roshan Kunwar and Dona Gurung on guitar and bass. Girish Subedi did the sound engineering and the mastering was done at RK Studio Nepal, Kirtipur.

A limited edition of the physical album of this release was produced and distributed during Salil’s five week long Canadian tour of 2019 in Montreal, Toronto, Kingston and New Brunswick where there were two sold out concerts from the fifteen shows. He performed some tracks as a live collaboration with Canadian musicians or as solo acts with live looping. This digital release, also a debut solo album, contains selected tracks that represents the idea of Salil’s musical journey with the didgeridoo and overtone music over the years.

Salil has previously recorded in other albums with Bijaya Vaidya, Rabin Lal Shrestha, Louis Bertignac, Trikaal, Navaraj Gurung, Anil Shahi, Aman Shahi, Sunil Pariyar and released background scores for numerous documentary films and a few plays.

Salil says: “This short and sweet album is representative of the kind of musicality and musical collaborations with amazing musicians of all generations that I am exploring at this point of my musical journey. Years ago, I went to Mongolia to learn throat singing, self-taught didgeridoo, murchunga and many other instruments. I had great time playing with amazing musicians across all generations. Some passed on, others are still close friends and the new emerging artists are a sparkle of sunlight bringing more warmth and joy to the Nepali music world. Now I have arrived at a place where I am collaboratively weaving them together on live and recorded sets yet keeping my solo journey with live looping alive. This album is a tribute to all my friends and audience who have loved me and given me space to keep creating.”

The music tracks names are equally amusing and thoughtful. There are 8 tracks in total.

HilliBilli is a lively and happy music which Salil says is an inspiration from the Annapurna Himal treks and the white reflections of its snow peaks on the lake of Phewa for its brilliant colors and charm. The didgeridoo and murchunga in blend with the melodic riff played by Manish Gandharva on Sarangi beautifully sets the mood for the album with this opening track.

The Ant Song features the rapid movement of the hardworking ants portrayed by the twangs of the single reeded murchunga, didgeridoo and Madal. It focuses on the often less cared asset of biodiversity – the insects. Ants being one among them have inspired great many philosophical, moral, social and cultural thoughts that our civilization is based on. Jagannath Dhaugoda featurs in this song with his energetic and playful rhythm structure on the Madal.

Over the Tones is a treat of multilayered Overtone Throat Singing layered with the Tungna and Didgeridoo. This is probably the first music composition of its kind done by a Nepali musician doing the overtone throat singing, and that too with a unique flavor of a new composition. You can hear the high and low pitched overtones with the sustaining melody of an alap voice that will bowl you over the tones.

Love Light steals the heart with the beautiful alap sung by the classical vocalist, Sujata Verma over the multilayered drones of a low-keyed didgeridoo and tanpura. The composition was inspired when the musicians appeared early morning at the studios when the first light of the sun had just started reflecting its glitter on the nearby Bagmati river. This song is a dedication to the light that makes us feel alive every morning as love does.

Langtang Himal This is a composition dedicated to the legends of the Langtang peak and its surrounding regions. In 2015, an entire village in Langtang was swept by the landslide caused by an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude. This music is in reverence and fascination of the echoes that runs in the mountains represented by the long sustaining alap with the melodies of the Tungna, which is native to the Tamang ethnic community of the region.

Desert Dreams is a beautiful rendering of dreamscapes portrayed through music. This composition which carries some flavors of Arabic tunes, sings of the longing or wanting to reach a destination or meet someone or find an answer in the vast infinite horizon of the desert. Yet, no one is sure if we ever reach the destination or desires. Such is the story of life as we thrive in quest of all these to happen in this lifetime.

Soul Sisters The two musicians, Sujina and Rojina of the Shree Tara Band, sat at the studio contemplating on the short riff they had composed on Sarangi and the bamboo flute some years ago. And together with Salil singing an overtone melody, they collaborated in stretching the melody and composing this soulful tune called the Soul Sisters to weave their own stories, their joy, pain, life hidden emotions and friendship.

Breath and Beat is a live jam up with the didgeridoo and tabla at the studio. The two friends Salil and Navaraj Gurung meet up again musically rendering yet another round of their virtuoso playing and nailing it on a single take! All the extempore power packed expressions and flow they have created comes from being fully present there and then as pure as the freshly blowing wind on the sweetly pounding heart.