I Don’t Know Who Sarathy Korwar Was, This Is What His Music Told
A Review of Sarathy Korwar’s There Is Beauty There Already
Track 1: A Perfect Day It feels like a distant call, like the beginning of a prayer. It’s saying the prayer is about to start and it is creating that magnetic feel, inviting people and making them look. It is like someone just lit the lamp and is letting the moth know, “I have risen, come.”
Track 2: We Take Things for Granted Now it seamlessly transitions to track 2. This is like the start of a sermon where a priest is slowly telling us his emotions and how he feels about the world currently. He is like a shepherd on the grazing ground where he sees cities encroaching on his lands. He is building up the courage with the beats of the drum and claps. The music is telling us we have taken things for granted and it’s time to recognize that before it’s too late. It has a grimness to it at the ending, like things are progressing fast. The vocals in the back are like a warning call, calling us to do the right thing. Now it’s just the call and no drums; it is us sitting with the warning and the conclusion.
Track 3: Skin, Colour, Sun, Lover The beats take us from track 2 to track 3. A listener would never notice it if they didn’t check. It’s like everyone in the temple has collected and the warnings have been sent, but there is this unease among the people because all of them are different. They are tied to society and its social values which stops them from joining as one. Like the name of the track, the skin colour is shaping the inside of that temple and the people’s emotions. The tabla is like an indicator of that; it keeps going and building the tension up and up.
Track 4: A Day is a Cycle of Drum Beats This takes us to track 4, which was not as seamless as the previous tracks because here we are disconnected with the confusing feeling that divided us. It’s a hopeful rise. The tune in the background is rising like a shepherd’s tone and breaking the tension. It’s the sun embracing them all, accepting them for who they are and what they did. It’s calling again through nature to let people join other people. The tune and drum become more complex with time and then the rising tune is gone. It’s just us left with nature. The prayer is done for the day. The moon and its creatures are joining the sun. The sun never goes away; everyone is just making their own space. The moon, as the sun’s ambassador, is playing its part by reflecting its absence, but its light shines on the world in a new way. It shows us there is no absence of good. The sun is that greatness and goodness; it reflects differently at different times showing us the complexity of life.
Track 5: Looking for a Ghazal Again, a seamless transition to track 5. The prayer is there, but the preacher is looking for a new sermon for this united group of people and nature. Drums are playing at a constant rate then other sources join in. The preacher has found his tone and the dance has begun. It’s slow, but the cosmic nature of it is inviting everyone to perform in the way greatness requires. The dance is just a start, a gradual rise. The tune makes you feel the presence of the sun and it’s not a warning, it is embracing. It’s a call to wash our sins away. They have found their ghazal.
Track 6: No Amongst All of the Rubble Now track 6. It’s like we are in the sins; when we tried to wash them away, we ended up in the rubble of the horrors we created. It’s a reflection of the complexities. We have electronic music now joining in like a part telling us to rewire. It’s heavy and it’s a mountainous task. It isn’t easy, it’s walking on fire, but everyone has had the courage to walk on it. You hear the rising notes again and hopeful percussion. The electronic music is gone and the reflection is done. We are becoming hopeful. The sun is calling again to join him by walking out of the rubble. The call from the preacher is a ritual that will keep going like a cycle.
Track 7: Is There Beauty Now in track 7, the people are asking themselves after witnessing their own horrors: is hope possible? Is there beauty in this ugliness? You can hear the core of human nature being explored, realizing the good, the bad, and the ugly. The reckoning has arrived. They are self-questioning, asking whether they should continue the ritual and the path they have been walking on. It’s like the artist is asking us if we are up for it, challenging the social manufacturing within us.
Track 8: Beauty Doesn’t Know What It Looks Like After the realization, it is time to change the pace. Like the ending of track 7, the great Indian Shunk is being played. The preacher is changing the pace and depicting the start of greatness. The Shunk has led us onto a new path. It’s confusing; we don’t know what we are getting into after shedding our sins and identity. There is a pace we are following that tells us to meet the universe at a meeting spot. There is no timer, but it feels like it’s now or never. It’s a chase, like your past is after you but you are breaking free. The Shunk has started the battle and commanded you to fight. Like Krishna telling Arjun to fight no matter what, that is his karma.
Track 9: We Won’t Be Searching By the end of the track, we come to a realization with a clock-style pattern in the back. We won’t be searching because the battle made us realize the greatness isn’t outside, it’s inside us. We are particles of stardust and the sun is inside us. We are sitting with ourselves in this journey and the perspective is changing. It’s a hopeful rising and the ritual is coming to an end. We are coming near the meeting spot where all these different elements become one. We realize the good and the bad all came from the same source: us. This is the longest track because it is the beginning of the culmination. It’s like a transfer of supreme knowledge. It’s not just knowledge, it’s a burden. Just like Sarathy has carried the burden in the form of music to educate us, we are trying to understand that complexity. The cleansing is done and we are in the rhythm of the universe. All the universe is dancing in that cosmic fusion, and Sarathy is just shedding light via his music.
Track 10: There Is Beauty There Already In the final track, the dance has reached a point of ecstasy that was necessary. Everything is calm and it’s all one and you are part of it. Everything is effortless now. You are dancing with the universe not because you want to, but just because you can. It’s painting a bigger picture. Even if the mud brings us down, we have to keep dancing to the tune. The hopeful rhythm in the back keeps moving us and now you are eloping into the light. Just like seven colours becoming one white light, you are part of the spectrum. The ritual will continue; it has not ended. The song might have stopped, and the painter Sarathy might have stopped broadcasting, but the cosmic dance you are part of is still continuing. You just have to listen again.
