by Kieran Yates
Freelance Journalist

Nitin Swahney is one of the most prolific Indian composers, musicians and producers alive today.

But Monday’s performance at London’s Barbican Centre however, was something new even to me.

I have followed his work for many years as a young ardent follower of his early trip-hop albums, then later to recent shows around London where he has played dubstep inspired jazz sets to crowds of enthusiastic dancers, singing and skanking along.

The concept of the night was an unusually powerful one.

Nitin Sawhney, reincarnated as a composer, played alongside the London Symphony Orchestra delivering one of the most moving performances I have seen at the venue (and not just because the last thing I watched was a ‘Jack n Beanstalk ‘panto. Ahem.)

It was a perfectly-timed 64-min piece to accompany the classic Japanese silent film, ‘Yogoto Ni Yume’.

Filmed in black and white, the story tells of Japan in 1933, at the latter end of the Great Depression, and follows the progananist ‘Omitsu’: a barmaid struggling to bring up her son in poverty, while her partner tries to find a job, leading to ultimately devastating consequences.

The film was projected onto an impressively sized screen, with the orchestra playing live below the projection.

The beauty of the performance was the merging of both mediums together on one stage, with Nitin playing piano alongside the LSO, heightening the emotion of the films content and characters.

“I wanted to really let the orchestra and the score do the talking’ he later said as part of his open Q and A to the audience, “I wanted to get into the musical psychology of what was going on.”

Usually famed for his tabla and sitar accompaniment, to me the show was about representing the range of influences that Asian music and orchestral sounds have in conjunction with one another and the way they in turn can inspire.

The collaboration of the LSO, Japanese cinematography and Nitin’s Asian influence contributed to a multi-dimensional show of emotion through the music.

Though different to anything I have seen before, the performance worked by appealing to the audiences senses,;I know the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up on more than one occasion, despite being unfamiliar with the narrative.

All in all, Nitin Sawhney must be saluted for speaking many languages with music, and appealing to each ear in the full to the brim auditorium.

Also, of course, for putting on a better show that Jack and the Beanstalk. Amazing.

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Kieran Yates is a contributor to DazedDigital.com, RWD and LIVE.
She blogs here and is on Twitter here.