Sheila Chandra

小簡(jiǎn)介
Sheila Chandra 是80、90年代嘗試著把東方文化和西方流行音樂融合在一起最出色和成功的歌手，Chandra17歲就錄制了她的第一張專輯《Monsoon》。雖然擁有印度血統(tǒng)，但Chandra是在英國(guó)出生和長(zhǎng)大的，她加入了當(dāng)?shù)豈onsoon樂團(tuán)，擔(dān)任樂團(tuán)的主唱，發(fā)行的單曲"Ever So Lonely,"出人意料地進(jìn)入了Billboad Top 10，在80年代早期，Chandra為了有更多的創(chuàng)作自由，發(fā)展她的獨(dú)唱事業(yè)，不想受到廠牌商業(yè)制作的壓力的束縛，離開了樂團(tuán)，簽到了一個(gè)小的獨(dú)立廠牌“Indipop”。在80年代中期，Chandra非常高產(chǎn)，在兩到三年的時(shí)間里發(fā)行了5張專輯，這個(gè)時(shí)候她已經(jīng)從早期亞洲舞蹈流行曲風(fēng)Monsoon轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)楦鼮閭€(gè)人化的世界音樂融合。 Chandra還開始寫歌，并與她的丈夫和制作人Steve Coe合作，他們合作的專輯里通常都會(huì)使用印度的樂器，同時(shí)還有一些電子節(jié)拍來配合那些帶點(diǎn)舞曲和流行搖滾風(fēng)格的曲子。 但以后的的專輯里無歌詞的哼唱和以印度Raga曲風(fēng)為主的歌曲則占了越來越多的篇幅。
90年代Chandra的風(fēng)格日趨成熟，她的90年代的專輯都是由Peter Gabriel組建的Real World廠牌發(fā)行，這個(gè)時(shí)期Chandra的作品達(dá)到了真正的世界融合，專輯里融入了印度Raga，英國(guó)民謠的元素，中東圣歌，復(fù)雜的多軌錄音和更多的人聲，打擊樂的編曲，以及一些實(shí)驗(yàn)的音樂元素。
Chandra和Coe現(xiàn)在獨(dú)立完成Chandra的音樂制作，創(chuàng)造了一種近似Drone的音樂效果來配合Chandra無歌詞的吟唱。她的專輯里不再有流行和搖滾的元素， Chandra對(duì)極盡表現(xiàn)聲音的極限更感興趣， 無論是用印度語(yǔ)、西班牙語(yǔ)還是回族語(yǔ)言，或者是在June Tabor 或 Laurie Anderson的作品里發(fā)現(xiàn)到的素材等各種方式來表現(xiàn)她的音樂。這些近期的作品已經(jīng)奠定了Chandra作為現(xiàn)代世界音樂融合的先驅(qū)地位之一，而她的聲音則在歲月的流逝中更加純粹和達(dá)到一種靈魂深處的優(yōu)雅。
by Richie Unterberger
One of the most unusual and successful singers of the 80s and 90s that has attempted to fuse the music of non-Western cultures with Western pop, Sheila Chandra began recording as a teenager in Monsoon. Of Indian ancestry, but born and raised in Britain, Chandra took lead vocals in the band, which pursued a sort of new wave-tinged raga-rock along the lines of George Harrisons explorations on Beatles tracks like Love You To. The combination yielded an album and an unexpected British hit single, Ever So Lonely, in the early 80s. Chandra, however, felt limited by the labels pressures for more commercial product, and signed to a small indie label, Indipop, which she felt would offer more freedom for her explorations as a solo artist.
In the mid-80s, Chandra was astonishingly prolific, releasing five solo albums over a period of about two or three years that drifted away from the Asian dance-pop of Monsoon into a more personal sort of world fusion. Chandra also began to write much of her own material, usually in collaboration with producer and husband Steve Coe; Coe had also helped produce, write, and perform the music in Monsoon with Martin Smith, who also assisted on Chandras early solo records. Indian instruments were still usually employed, and electronic rhythm tracks still sometimes used to guarantee some measure of danceability and pop-rock appeal. But with increasing frequency, Chandra was pushing herself beyond the parameters of pop-rock with wordless pieces of both melismatic singing and percussive mouth noises, ambitious song cycles, interwoven overdubbed vocal tracks, and a 27-minute track based around a raga. (Her mid-80s Indipop albums have been reissued in the U.S. by Caroline.)
Chandra truly matured as an artist, however, with her 90s albums for Peter Gabriels Real World label (distributed in the U.S., again, by Caroline). As proof that adulthood doesnt have to mean tamer and more mainstream product, these found Chandra achieving a true world fusion that drew from Indian ragas, elements of British folk, Middle Eastern chants, sophisticated studio overdubs, and more vocal percussion compositions, the last of which bordered on the downright experimental.
Chandra and Coe were now almost solely responsible for the music (Martin Smith no longer being an active participant), constructing drone-like instrumental textures to suitably complement Chandras oft-wordless singing. Pop and rock were hardly factors anymore; Chandra was primarily interested in extending the limits of vocal expression, whether applied to Indian, Spanish, or Islamic forms, or the kind of material that could find a suitable home in the repertoire of June Tabor or Laurie Anderson. These recent works have firmly established Chandra as one of the principal boundary jumpers of contemporary music, but shes not a dilettante, and she imbues her music with a haunting, spiritual grace.