The summer festival season is going full tilt across B.C., which is good news for artists and musicians. But it’s still exceedingly rare for one artist to be featured at two Vancouver festivals on the same weekend.
Yet this is the reality for performer, composer, and producer Ruby Singh.
On Saturday (July 18), Indian Summer Festival will present HYDRONE, a 4-d transdisciplinary spatial audio installation by Singh. It’s at Lobe Studios (713 East Hastings Street) from 4 to 8 p.m.
According to the festival website, it explores water as “memory, force, and connective tissue”. And it accomplishes this by combining “environmental recordings, voice, synthesis, percussion, poetry, and climate data sonification to create an evolving sonic ecosystem that moves through water’s elemental states of ice, river, rain, ocean, and mist”.
Singh developed this project with Priyanka Chakrabarti (voice, synthesis), Tarun Nayar (table, synthesis), and Fiana Kawane (Kathak, percussion).
Then on Sunday (July 19), Ruby Singh and the Future Ancestors will perform at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival at ʔəy̓alməxʷ / Iy̓ál̓mexw Jericho Beach Park. This time, his band will include Memphis-born novelist and performance poet Arthur “Rickydoc” Flowers on vocals and handpan.
Singh views healing as a collective practice
Singh and Flowers will also be joined on the East Stage at 3:20 p.m. by two of the band’s early members on vocals, Khari Wendell McLelland and Holly Eccleston, and Singh’s longtime collaborator, Kenton Loewen, on drums. Karlis Silins will play bass, Paul Finlay is the turntablist, and Paul Pigat is on guitar.
In addition, Ruby Singh and the Ancestors will be part of Rise Up and Sing, hosted by English songwriter and activist Billy Bragg. Other performers at this session at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday include Valerie June, Lindi Ortega, and Ken Pomeroy.
Earlier this year, Ruby Singh and the Ancestors released an animated music video for “Healing”, featuring spoken-word artistry by Flowers.
“ ‘Healing’ came out of witnessing genocide, the rise of fascist ideals, climate chaos and global violence, asking how we move through despair without becoming numb,” Singh states on the band’s YouTube channel. “This is not healing as escape. It is healing as collective practice, as the good work we all need to do.”
Flowers will also appear at Indian Summer Festival. At 8 p.m. on Thursday, he will be at Ignite, a Pechu Kucha-style storytelling session with six emerging artists. It will take place at Waterferont Theatre (1412 Cartwright Street, Granville Island).
Watch the music video (above) for “Healing”, with animation by Sab Meynert.
For tickets and more information about Ignite and Hydrone, visit the Indian Summer Festival website.
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival will present Ruby Singh and the Ancestors on the East Stage at 3:20 p.m. on Sunday (July 19) at ʔəy̓alməxʷ / Iy̓ál̓mexw Jericho Beach Park. The band will also be part of Rise Up and Sing at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday with Valerie June, Lindi Ortega, and Ken Pomeroy, which will be hosted by Billy Bragg. For tickets and more information, visit the Vancouver Folk Music Festival website.
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