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YANTRA
Rich vocal fusion exploring the spiritual and folkloric music from the traditional and ancient musical heritage of Bulgaria, India and England.
Bulgarian Eugenia Georgieva is best known as the driving force behind Perunika vocal trio, specialising in Bulgarian traditional song and Church Slavonic chants. In the past she has sung with a rock band and has been involved in a number of diverse collaborations - chill out, Balkan/ Klezmer and crossover with Transglobal Underground, Phil Thornton and Max Pashm Band, as well as session work (BBC drama The Virgin Queen soundtrack won an Ivor Novello award in 2007). She has performed on several BBC Radio live sessions and has won prizes at Llangollen Eisteddfod 2008 and International Russian Song Contest 2012. In April 2012 Perunika Trio released an album of traditional Japanese songs in Bulgarian arrangement on Sony Music Japan ("Bulgarian Warabeuta") and performed live at Tokyo’s Kokusai Forum as well as on several Japanese TV shows.
Vamshikrishna Vishnudas is a vocalist from South India, obtained his Bachelors in Music from Telugu University, Hyderabad, India. He specialises in traditional Carnatic music and has performed extensively in his home country and received several prizes and awards as a young musician. For the past 12 years he has lived in the United Kingdom and has gained a reputation as a solo performer and as an accompanist for dance. He has worked with many internationally renowned musicians (most notably with Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth), dancers and dance teachers, and has been a part of several creative music and dance projects in the UK and Europe. Vamshikrishna is also an acclaimed teacher and a resident vocal teacher at Pandit Ram Sahai Sangit Vidyalaya, London.
Basso profundo Jeremy Birchall, also a founder member of The Shout, has had an extremely wide-ranging singing career spanning more than twenty years. He has sung with most of the leading groups specialising in both early and contemporary music, including the Taverner Consort, Tallis Scholars, BBC Singers, Polyphony and London Sinfonietta Voices. As a soloist, he has peformed in major venues in London, New York, Paris and Athens and his voice has been specially suited to pieces by John Tavener. He has made more than 250 CDs and has performed on many Hollywood soundtracks including ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Pirates of the Carribean’, ‘Crimson Tide’ and ‘Spongebob Squarepants’. He is the musical director of close harmony group The Demon Barbers and a regular performer at ROH Covent Garden.
Former members include Yogeswaran Manickam and Shahid Abbas Khan.
About
Yantra
1. a river in Northern Bulgaria which has its source in central Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains). From Thracian “iatrus” – “fast flowing”;
2. the Sanskrit word for "instrument" or "machine"; it can stand for symbols, processes, automata, machinery or anything that has structure and organization, depending on context.
YANTRA is the unusual project of three singers from very different backgrounds, united by their passion of unaccompanied human voice. Born from an experimental session for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction in 2009, YANTRA's vocal focal point is the intersection of seemingly incompatible and incomparable singing traditions. Combining the purity of a cappella with modern multi-tracking recording techniques, their rich vocal fusion explores the spiritual and folkloric music from the traditional and ancient musical heritage of Bulgaria, India and England.
YANTRA were special guests on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction with Verity Sharp in May 2009 and The Choir with Aled Jones in October 2012.
YANTRA
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