Claver Menezes and Ashwini Torvi Release Album "The Word"

Old friends Claver Menezes and Ashwini Torvi come together again to release their album "The Word" on the 21st of October, 2022. The album has been much awaited by their fans, friends and families, as it shines a light on the worldly anomalies and how they show rising above them with their music.

While talking to Claver about his life since his last album, Diverse Delusions II, he says, "We have been meeting with many of my musician friends and collaborating. During these two years, we also lost our dear friend Prasad Salian, which was a big blow to us personally and professionally. We are dedicating this album to him, and we hope he listens to it from heaven and finds a little bit of all of us in it."

The name of the album is "The Word", and the concept behind it is explained by Claver here, "One day, Ashwini and I were out for dinner, and we were talking about all the geopolitical unrest and everything else that is happening on our planet and how we feel about it. Ashwini, from her south Indian heritage, grew up listening to brilliant Indian classical musicians and is great at enunciating difficult Sanskrit words. As she talked about it, a lightbulb went off. We were inspired by Prathivadhi Bhayankaram Aṇṇan's Suprabhatam, sung by Mrs MS Subbulakshmi. And we came up with Awakening. You are awakened, you give in your word, and your time in this universe ends.' The whole album is a journey of a sort."

The song Awakening of the album entirely stands out with its sound. Ashwini commented that "The Awakening song is our own spin on Venkatesha Suprabhatam, the Sanskrit poem of the Suprabhātakāvya genre, which is a collection of hymns or verses usually recited early in the morning to awaken the gods. We wanted to make something as powerful, if not more, and get to a point where the song will incite rage, anger or simply some kind of reaction."

When asked about Ashwini's background, Claver says, "Ashwini comes from a musical family and has been singing all her life. Coming from a hardcore business background, music has been her passion for all her life. She also took an interest in rock music during her teenage years and hasn't looked back. Ashwini's voice can go from a rocky/grungy tone, like in the song 'Dug Your Grave' from our album Diverse Delusions II, to soft and sensual, like the song 'Maybe' from the same album, to cheeky and fierce, like the song 'Deer On Ice' from Diverse Delusions I, in a click of a button."

The Awakening song was directed by Sunil Cherian, and Ashwini says, "Sunil Cherian has been friends with Claver for over 22 years. He called Claver up for some music so he could do some experimental video. Claver sent the Awakening song to him. Since then, Sunil has been keen on doing this project and helping bring this song to a larger audience. He is a genius taskmaster from the advertising world. He does not believe in Plan B and ensures the final product meets his visual expectations."

The album "The Word" can be found on all music streaming platforms, and they urge their followers to go check it out on the 21st of this month.