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Talvin Singh

Talvin Singh

Talvin Singh is an accomplished Tabla player, electronic musician, music theorist, record producer and DJ. As a solo artist, he is perhaps best known as the father of modern Asian electronica music, though he is also a highly celebrated tabla player, record producer and visual practitioner.

Singh grew up in Leytonstone and began playing the tabla, breakdancing and listening to punk rock as a child. At the age of 15, Singh went to India where he studied tabla under Pandit Lashman Singh, but he returned to the UK after just one year. In spite of this classical training, Singh's tabla playing was not accepted by British promoters of classical Indian music, as he incorporated too strongly his western influences. By the late 1980s, Singh had decided to turn towards the fusion of sounds. In 1991, he first appeared both playing and singing on the "Kiss Them For Me" single by Siouxsie & the Banshees. Then, he began working as a musician with such artists as Madonna,the Indigo Girls, David Sylvian, Sun Ra, Stress (Neo-Psychedelic band), Björk, Massive Attack and the Future Sound of London.

In late 1995, Singh founded the Anokha club night with promoter Sweety Kapoor at East London's Blue Note, where drum'n'bass DJs and South Asian punk bands went head to head with the amped-up sounds of his tabla and percussion. He worked as a remixer until releasing his solo debut, Ok, in 1999. The album won him the Mercury Music Prize for 1999.