It’s raining music

Faraway Friends

It was only yesterday that we had raised a question in these pages - what, if any, is the purpose of art? It's thus coincidental that today, we are writing about an album that serves a clear-cut purpose through the medium of music - raising awareness about the need for water conservation. Rain is Coming is a record that Indo-German-Austrian trio Faraway Friends launched on March 22, which is World Water Day. The project was formed in 2019, when then Goa-based singer-songwriter Aditi Veena aka Ditty joined German rapper Keno Langbein and Austrian drummer David Raddish when the latter were travelling across rural India, playing music to sensitise people about how essential conserving water is.

Veena tells us, "When these guys approached me, I was like, ‘What kind of an itinerary is this?' They were going into the rural hinterland, performing for the locals there. It got me curious. I am anyway driven by the environment [Veena is also an urban ecologist]. So, I went on the trip with them and saw how music was actually breaking many boundaries. There were villagers in places near Varanasi who were reacting to German rap music; we were so moved by what we saw on the ground that we wanted to make space for more conversation on these social issues."

That last thought eventually gave birth to Rain is Coming. Each song in it works as a clarion call for the need to conserve water. Hip-hop and rap elements are injected with Veena's singer-songwriter sensibilities. There are even some tracks that consist of nothing else but speeches by real-life activists, including Pooja Chowdhary, who trains jal sahelis in North India, or women who employ traditional means of digging ponds instead of relying on government-built dams. These tracks have no backing music at all, apart from the lulling sounds of falling rain or a gushing stream.

The clear aim of this album, then, is to combine activism with art to bring about societal change. When we ask Veena what she feels about the purpose of art, she says, "This has been a big enquiry for me, and I have realised that if we are creating something and interacting with society, then we are automatically activists. I think both are interlinked, because when you are engaging with society [through art] you are automatically making some kind of comment. And I hope that the people who hear the album think a little bit about the subject we are raising."

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