East Vancouver composer, performer, and producer Ruby Singh isn’t easily categorized. His website notes that his “creativity crosses the boundaries of music, poetry, photography and film engaging with mythos memory, justice and fantasy”.
Despite his eclectic artistic expression, there’s a consistent theme underlying all of it. Singh’s work is ultimately rooted in empathy, curiosity, and an open mind, whether he’s exploring Sufi hip-hop or blues and soul.
On Friday (February 23), Singh’s fans are in for a treat when he and some talented musician friends will present Vox.Infold II at the MOTHER CLOUD Spatial Sound Festival. This is a follow-up album to the good-natured artist’s JUNO-nominated Vox.Infold, which premiered at the 2021 Indian Summer Festival in Vancouver.
“It’s the first performance [of the album] that we’re ever doing live,” Singh tells Pancouver by phone. “It’s going to be spacialized audio with live performers.”
For Friday’s 4-D performance at Performance Works on Granville Island, he’ll be reunited with Dawn Pemberton, PIQSIQ’s Inuksuk Mackay, Russell Wallace, Tiffany Moses, and Chimerik 似不像 Collective, who worked with him on the first album. They’ll be joined by Singh’s friend Khari Wendell McClelland, who performed and recorded with him in Ruby Singh and The Future Ancestors.
“I just want to express gratitude to this creative crew of human beings that have come together,” Singh declares. “It just blows me away that they are incredible musicians and artists, but they’re even better people.”
Vox.Infold II work began in Berlin
For those unfamiliar with 4-D music, it involves placing many speakers around a venue to enable sounds to meet and interact at different points in the room. Singh spent a great deal of time working on the new album in Berlin at a spatialized sound studio called MONOM. He applied the final touches at the Lobe spatialized sound studio in East Vancouver.
“It’s definitely a new growing field, particularly the 4-D sound,” Singh says. “I think there are only four other permanent studios in the world that exist with this kind of spatialized sound.”
According to Singh, some of the technology from Lobe will be installed at Performance Works for the Friday show to go along with Chimerik 似不像 Collective’s immersive visuals.
As for the new album, Singh says that Vox.Infold II takes a cyclical look at life. Moreover, he reveals that it includes celebration, joy, leaning into the mysterious, and forging intergenerational connections.
“I’m a bit of a time nerd,” the composer reveals. “You’re going to find I really explored a lot of polyrhythm and polymeter in this next one…just to emphasize that idea of cyclical time.”
Pursuing connections through generations
He points out that our “capitalism-forward society” focuses a great deal of attention on youth in pop culture. Singh, on the other hand, wanted to record an album addressing the interconnectedness of relationships and how all generations are here to hold up the other ones. Furthermore, he notes that there are cyclical ideas of time, as well as reincarnation (the cycle of samsara), in Sikhi, which he was born into.
While working on the Vox.Infold II, Singh thought a lot about his elders, including some family members who helped raised him and his siblings after their mother died.
“We lost a few of those folks over the last few years,” Singh says, “and I just wanted to honour their lives.”
His goal is to be a good ancestor—and he thinks that society would be better off if more people thought along those terms.
“Loss is just a common theme in everybody’s life because there is one guarantee: none of us are making it out of here alive,” Singh says with a laugh.
Event details
The MOTHER CLOUD Spatial Sound Festival presents Ruby Singh’s Vox.Infold II and Chimerik 似不像 at 7:45 p.m. at Performance Works on Granville Island. Doors open at 730. For tickets, visit Eventbrite. Follow Pancouver on Twitter @PancouverMedia and on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
