Ricky Kej soars with second Grammy win

Divine Tides by Bengaluru-based composer Ricky Kej and legendary musician Stewart Copeland received the Finest New Age Album on the lately concluded Grammy Awards 2022. Ricky received his first Grammy in 2015 for his album Winds of Samsara within the Finest New Age Album class too.

“I at all times needed to create a follow-up to that individual album, however my touring schedule had develop into fairly relentless,” says Ricky over telephone, including that in 2019 alone he had 70 concert events in 13 nations.

Nonetheless, when the pandemic hit in 2020, Ricky took it as a chance to channel his concept and begin recording in a focussed method. “Whereas I used to be doing that, I realised a robust collaborator would take the music to a different stage. In 2016, I had labored on a tune with Stewart Copeland, so I despatched him a few of my music and requested if he can be excited about collaborating with me on this album.

“To my shock, it was a fast reply — he cherished the music and was prepared to start out work on it. We labored on the album for a few 12 months,” says Ricky, remembering the fixed forwards and backwards of emails, messages, Zoom calls and distant recording classes because of the pandemic.

“I lastly met Stewart for the primary time round 10 days in the past in Nashville the place he was performing. Copeland was my childhood idol, somebody I’ve seemed as much as my whole life and it was superb to really meet in individual and provides him a hug.”

Divine Tides, themed round coexistence and environmental consciousness, includes 9 tracks and was launched in July 2021. Speaking about ‘Himalayas,’ a monitor on Divine Tides, Ricky says, “It was one of many first items we did. The video was filmed within the Himalayas, at an elevation of 12,000 toes — it was fairly an expertise. It was additionally our tribute to the nice mountain which performs a big position in sustaining all life on the planet. Only a few folks comprehend it has the best reserves of pure water on the earth after the North and South Poles. In addition to, the spirituality related to this nice mountain vary in a number of religions for billions of individuals all over the world, is well-known.”

Ricky says Copeland who’s well-travelled, has an ear for Japanese devices and musical sensibilities which clearly replicate within the percussion heard in ‘Himalayas’.

“He had collected unique musical devices from all around the world, however by no means had an opportunity to professionally report these devices, being the rock drummer that he’s. Divine Tides was a chance for his followers to see a very completely different aspect to him. Considered one of these was the spin gong, which provides out a fantastically, ethereal really feel and the opposite is the timpani, which although an orchestral percussion instrument, as been performed by Stewart in an Japanese style. Indian music was not one thing new to him as a result of he was already used to its scales and tonality.”

Speaking in regards to the album’s identify, Ricky says, ”The phrase ‘Tides’ denotes a cyclical phenomenon just like the lunar cycle in addition to ideas similar to recycling, cyclical financial system and the cycle of life itself. It’s got numerous connotations and is about coexistence the place everybody relies on one another for survival; that’s what the ecosystem on our planet is all about. Tides are additionally about rhythm which is necessary to Stewart. He coined the identify and I completely cherished it.”

Bengaluru-based designers Harris Backer and Shashank Akella conceived the album cowl, engaged on the transient given to them that ‘each look on the art work ought to reveal one thing new’. So whereas the quilt artwork depicts a gender-neutral human face, subsequent glances reveal glimpses of Nature; phases of the Moon dot the album title.

Divine Tides by Ricky Kej and Stewart Copeland is out there on all streaming platforms.