Collaboration is such a buzz word these days but the best collaborations are organic, fun and lead to lasting friendships.
Alai (The wave in Tamil) was born out of one such chance meeting at an event organized by PRS for Music where both Donna and Supriya were talking about music making! The talks continued well after the event as there was an instant ”click” and during COVID the idea for an online collaboration was born.
ALAI – has all the elements of Donna’s textured layers of electronic music combined with Supriya’s melodic voice interludes. The result is a WAVE of music that is subtle and yet exciting.
In Donna’s words:
Supriya and I met at a PRS event a few years ago, we immediately hit it off and I knew I wanted to collaborate with her. A while later I was writing in my studio at home in Ramsgate when I came up with an idea for us. I wanted to create something dark, distorted and powerful to contrast with the subtlety of Supriya’s incredible voice so I started experimenting with drums and destroying some dance keyboard samples to come up with a dark, heavy texture, adding in some classical elements to create a track we could start working with. I sent this to Supriya and she improvised a melody line using Alai (waves) as an inspiration. I then began reconstructing the whole track around her voice adding in some of my own as backing vocals.
Donna McKevitt writes music for film, dance and concert. Most recently she scored Mark Cousins film “My Name is Alfred Hitchcock”. She has written scores for contemporary dance works with Charlotte Edmonds and Phil Sanger with performances at R.O.H. and Sadler’s Wells. Her concert commissions include works for The Gesualdo Six, The ORA Singers and Voces8.
In 2022, she was awarded the PRS Composer Fund award to create a new work for voices and orchestra. In 2024 she will be scoring a new film about Irvine Welsh for documentary maker Paul Sng. Her work is released on Mute Records, Warner Classics and Globe Universal.
Supriya Nagarajan has a unique voice in the British music scene and creates concept driven immersive music productions that push boundaries and encourage thought. She has performed across the world in various venues like the Harpa in Reykjavik, Southbank Centre, Royal Albert Hall Casa Da Musica Portugal and the Zee Jaipur Litfest music stage. Her works like Lullaby Sonic Cradle, Sound of Tea, Meltwater and Bollywood Jazz project have won critical acclaim and earned her a niche reputation in the UK and beyond. Her music which is a blend of her South Indian roots and Western contemporary styles have been featured in festivals like the hcmf//, Ultima Oslo and WOMAD.
She has released albums under her own label Manasamitra as well as Tokuroku and Come Play With Me. She regularly receives funding from Arts Council England, PRS Foundation and is a vocal advocate of the Fair Access Principles championed by Sound & Music. Supriya runs a successful mentoring scheme for women composers of colour.