052: Ecstatic Music from Sri Lanka, by Baliphonics

Baliphonics (Sri Lanka/New Zealand)
Ecstatic Music from Sri Lanka (2018)
8 tracks, 26 minutes
Listen on the Baliphonics website

This is actually a group that have been on my radar for quite a few years. They caught my eye simply because it’s not every day you hear Sri Lankan music (if you’re me, anyway), and they kept that attention through their mix of traditional drumming and jazz, as well as what appears to be (although I’m definitely no expert!) a modern take on traditional dances…including dancing with fire, which is always exciting. The concept of Baliphonics has been around for about ten years, inspired by Sumudi Suraweera’s study into the music of the bali ritual while working towards his doctorate in ethnomusicology in New Zealand. That ritual aims to heal through warding off the evil intentions of planetary gods, so it’s not a music to take lightly. Baliphonics hold onto that seriousness despite their innovation.

With Sumudi on drum kit, the traditional styles are brought to the table by Prasanna Rupathilaka on yak bera drum and Susantha Rupathilaka dancing, and both sing. When I first heard the band, the jazz used to come from a solo double bass, but now it’s the task of Reuben Derrick on clarinets big and small to provide a never-too-intrusive avant-garde sound bed for the drums and voice. I think the musical input of Sumudi himself is what makes this such a successful fusion of styles. He’s a trained jazz drummer, but his academic explorations into the traditional Sri Lankan styles have allowed him to adapt his kit playing to nicely complement both sides of his band’s sound.

Although Baliphonics have played quite a bit throughout New Zealand, Sri Lanka and everywhere in between (namely, South-East Asia) over the past ten years, they only just made it over to Europe with a couple of gigs in Poland in December. They don’t even have an official album out yet, but they have put up a bunch of tracks recorded live in 2018 on their website, which is enough to class as a Good Album in my eyes. I really hope they come a little closer to the UK soon, so that I can see them live and keep writing about them! Keep a look out for these lot, they deserve to go places.