Talvin Singh
Talvin Singh (Punjabi: ਤਲਵੀਨ ਸਿੰਘ, Sindhi: तालबीन सिन्घ) (born 1970 in London, England), is a producer and composer and tabla player, known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass. Singh is generally considered involved with an electronica subgenre called Asian Underground, and more recently as Indian and/or Asian electronica.
After collaborating with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Björk in the early 1990s, Singh released his debut album Ok which received the Mercury Music Prize in 1999.
Singh has since collaborated with a variety of acts including Madonna and Massive Attack.
Early life and career
Singh grew up in Leytonstone and began playing the tablas as a child. At the age of 16, Singh went to India for two years where he studied tabla under Pandit Lashman Singh. He then 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 came to prominence by both playing tabla and singing on the "Kiss Them for Me" single by Siouxsie and the Banshees : the single peaked in the Billboard Hot 100 at number 23. Singh then became the sixth member of the Banshees and took part with them as second headliners of the inaugural Lollapalooza tour. Two years later in 1993, he was recruited by Björk to be her percussionist and director on her 1993's Debut album.