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1.0 Early years

2.0 Solo career

3.0 Scores

4.0 Collaborations and remixes

5.0 Awards

6.0 Additional information

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Nitin Sawhney Wiki Information

Nitin Sawhney (born 1964) is an Indian-British musician, producer and composer. His critically-acclaimed work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz and electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics and spirituality. Sawhney is also active in the promotion of arts and cultural matters, and is a patron of numerous film festivals, venues, and educational institutions.

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Early years

Nitin Sawhney was raised in Rochester, Kent, England. As a child Sawhney studied piano, classical and flamenco guitar, sitar and tabla. He attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, where he was the victim of racial persecution ^[1] from members of the British National Front. After leaving, he studied law at Liverpool University for a short time. ^[2]

It was during this period that Sawhney met up with an old school friend, acid-jazz keyboard-player James Taylor. Sawhney then toured as part of The James Taylor Quartet ^[3]. This experience led to him forming his own band, The Jazztones. He also joined forces with tabla master Talvin Singh to form the Tihai Trio ^[4].

After dropping out of university, Sawhney took up a position with a firm of accountants called Day Smith and Hunter in Maidstone, Kent. He trained to become a chartered accountant but found that his music was proving too much of a distraction and quit after about two years. Sawhney moved to London, where he met Sanjeev Bhaskar; together they created the comedy team The Secret Asians. The pair were given a show on BBC radio, which eventually grew into the award-winning BBC TV sketch show Goodness Gracious Me ^[5]. Refocusing on music, Sawhney's solo career began in 1993, when he released his debut album, Spirit Dance on his own label ^[6].

Solo career

Sawhney has released seven studio albums to date. His final album for Outcaste records, 1999's Beyond Skin , was his breakthrough, earning a Mercury Prize nomination ^[7] and winning the South Bank Show's award for Popular Music. Subsequently, Richard Branson’s V2 Records signed Sawhney to a six-album deal, and released Prophesy in 2001. The album went on to win a MOBO Award ^[8], an EMMA ^[9] and the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award ^[10]. In 2004 Sawhney issued two remix collections, All Mixed Up and FabricLive.15 , released worldwide by London nightclub Fabric and featuring samples of Gipsy Kings' Nicolás Reyes vocals. Sawhney’s album, Philtre , released in May 2005, was awarded the BBC Radio 3 Culture Crossing Award ^[11].

2007 saw the release of In the Mind Of… Nitin Sawhney , the first release in District 6's new compilation series.

Nitin Sawhney's latest album, London Undersound, was released on October 13th 2008.

Scores

In recent years Sawhney has been commissioned to write the scores for a number of different projects. He has established himself as an in-demand composer for film and television. His music for Channel Four’s Second Generation saw him nominated for the Ivor Novello Award for Film and TV Composition ^[12]. He has also scored ads for the likes of Nike and Sephora. In 2006 Sawhney composed a new symphony to accompany Franz Osten’s 1929 silent film, A Throw of Dice , which premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London ^[13]. More recent works include scores for Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair’s adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s, The Namesake ^[14], as well as Natural Fantasia for the BBC ^[15].

This work for film and television has led to recognition within the classical world as well. In 2001 Sawhney composed "Neural Circuits" for the Britten Sinfonia, a collaboration that has continued in the years since ^[16]. In 2002 he worked with Akram Khan and Anish Kapoor, scoring the music to Khan’s choreographed work Kaash , which toured worldwide between 2002 – 2003 ^[17]. In 2004, Sawhney was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to compose a new piece for their Harmony Project ^[18]. His most recent scores include the new adaptation of Mahabharata by Olivier-award winning writer Stephen Clarke ^[19], Simon McBurney’s A Disappearing Number for Complicite ^[20], and first-time theatrical director Jonathan Holmes’ Fallujah ^[21].

Sawhney produced the music for Sony PlayStation 3’s Heavenly Sword (starring Andy Serkis) and will also score The Fifth Beatle , a major studio film currently in production.

Collaborations and remixes

Sawhney has remixed a wide variety of artists over the years, including Sting, Natacha Atlas, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jeff Beck and Paul McCartney (for McCartney's The Fireman project). He also collaborated with Paul McCartney on a song called "My Soul", which appeared on Sawhney's "London Undersound" album. His own work has been remixed by 4hero, Talvin Singh, MJ Cole and Quantic. He produced several songs on Cheb Mami's album Dellali. Last year he co-produced the second album from songwriter Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly entitled Searching for the Hows and Whys released through Atlantic Records . During 2006-2007 Nitin Sawhney wrote the music for Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's dance piece "Zero Degrees"; Antony Gormley created the set.

Awards

1998

EMMA Award for Displacing The Priest

2000

Asian Pop Award for Best Mainstream Fusion Act for Beyond Skin
Technics Mercury Music Prize Nomination for album of the year for Beyond Skin
South Bank Award for Popular Music for Beyond Skin

2001

BBC Asia Award for Music for Prophesy
MOBO Award for Prophesy
Boundary Crossing Award, BBC Radio 3 Music Awards for Prophesy

2002

Media Personality of the Year nomination, RIMA Awards
EMMA Award for Prophesy
Muso Award for Prophesy

2003

Commission for Racial Equality Award

2004

Ivor Novello Award Nomination for Best Film Score for TV

2005

Boundary Crossing Award, BBC Radio 3 Music Awards for Philtre

2006

Honorary Graduate Degree from South Bank University, London

2007

Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Kent

2008

Companionship From the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in recognition of his contribution to the world of art and entertainment.
The UKAMA (UK Asian Music awards) Commitment to the scene award

Additional information

Much of Sawhney’s attention remains focused on the areas of education and community building, accepting the role of Artist in Residence for no less than five separate performing arts organisations across Great Britain and Asia. Sawhney joined Sir George Martin as a patron of the British Government’s Access-to-Music programme ^[22], and he is also patron of the Raindance East Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards ^[23]. Sawhney appears regularly as an arts and current affairs commentator on topical discussion and news programs such as the BBC’s Newsnight, Newsnight Review, and HardTalk. He has also written for UK national broadsheet newspapers: The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, and The Observer.

Discography

Albums

Spirit Dance (1994) World Circuit
Migration (1995) Outcaste Records
Displacing the Priest (1996) Outcaste Records
Beyond Skin (1999) Outcaste Records
Prophesy (2001) V2/BMG
Human (2003) V2
Philtre (2005) V2
London Undersound (2008) Cooking Vinyl

Compilations

FabricLive.15 (2004) Fabric
All Mixed Up (2004) V2
In the Mind of... (2007) District 6

Scores

1995

Flight (Alex Pillai / Hindi Pictures for BBC TV)

1998

Dance of Shiva (Jamie Payne / Epiphany Productions)

1999

Split Wide Open (Dev Benegal / Anuradha Parikh / Tropic Films)
The Fiancee (Alex Harvey)
The Sikhs (John Das / BBC TV Documentary Series)

2001

Ivor the Invisible (Hilary Audas / Paul Madden for Screen First / Channel 4 TV)

2002

Anita & Me (Metin Husseyin / Paul Raphael)
Bodily Harm (Tim Supple / Catherine Wearing / Channel 4 TV)
Pure (Gilles MacKinnon / Howard Burch)

2003

12th Night (Tim Supple/ Rachel Gesua / Channel 4 TV)
Second Generation (Jon Sen / Catherine Wearing / Channel 4 TV)
Still the Children are Here (Dinaz Stafford / Mira Nair)

2004

England Expects (Andy Smith / BBC 1)
Tamworth Two (Metin Husseyin / ITV) 0
Hari Om (Bharat Bala)
Lila Says (Ziad Doueri)
Angell’s Hell (Saurabh Kakkar / ITV)
Lions in Peril (Ingrid Kavalle / BBC)

2005

Rose and Maloney (Metin Husseyin / Catherine Wearing / ITV)
Blindsight (Lucy Walker / Sybil Robson-Orr)
Natural Fantasia (Sean Christian / BBC)
Throw of Dice (Franz Osten 1929 silent film, new score performed by BBC Concert Orchestra)

2007

Living Goddess From the producers of David La Chappelle’s RIZE, Dark Fibre Films/More Four
The Namesake (Mira Nair / Lydia Pilcher)
Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory / Sony Playstation 3)

2008