Kumaran Thavarajah on purevolume™

Acoustic / World / Experimental

Hey thanks for checking out the site.
All the songs are instrumental so don't expect any lyrics.
I guess with instrumental songs it's hard to get a feel for what the music is about so
I've left a little blurb about each song below.

A Faded Memory - I think that of my songs this would be the easiest to listen to. I foucssed on developing strong melodies and tried to express them in an understated way - the song works with soft layered guitars instead of thicker distorted sounds. Listening to it now I cant believe I added the cheesy harmonic layer over the top. if you listen carefully you can hear it layered over the verse, it drives me crazy!

Srushti (Part I) - I guess this would be the song that defines my music the most its probably the sound that I feel best expresses what my musics about. The idea behind it was to create something emotive and raw. Srushti, meaning the act of creation, is meant to be a representation of music that goes beyond sonic frequencies and is rather the expression of emotion and passion.

I Mustve Been Dreaming - I wrote it trying to write something with a real pop hook hence the 80s sounding choruses. At times I find it very formulaic and the essence of the song is meant to be in the contrast between the heavily layered verses and the freshness of the choruses. This was the first time I really experimented with something up tempo and Im not sure Ill try it again.

Before These Streets - This song is just a short exerpt of the sound I play when I perform live. I developed the sound when I spent a couple of months busking in London hence the name Before these streets.

Tomorrow - This was the first song I recorded and it took the longest to write out of all of them. It took me two months to complete it and as a result is heavily layered. Its meant to be a really optimistic sound and I think the soft layering behind the stronger melodies bring that emotion out. This would probably be my song that could most easily adapt to having a singer as the melodies are so clearly defined and simple.

Srushti (Part 2) - The two songs were actually meant to be parts of the same song, but I couldnt get them to work together. If you listen carefully both actually sing the same melody. The song is very raw I think I did it in one take. As a result I struggle to listen to it as I tend to be critical of all the little playing errors I hear the sound of my fingers scratching across the strings really annoys me at times. At other times though I think it adds to the emotiveness of the song its attraction is in its imperfection.

This Summers Gone - When I wrote this song I was obsessed with writing the quintessential pop song. Listening to it now, I feel like it could have been a better song if I had developed the chorus, whose stringy sound I feel makes the song.

Aching Hunger - Definitely my favourite song out of the stuff Ive written. I feel like its as emotive as Srushti but conveys it through a more understated sound. The song is continually building and has a strange energy. The harmonics that come in after about 40 seconds always cut right through me. Incidentally, it also reminds me of a belly dancing song maybe its something in the melody?

A Faded Memory (Live) - Funnily enough this song is not actually live, I just mixed in crowd effects. You could probably tell that the crowd is way too well behaved and also sounds way too big! I spent so long trying to get the solo clean and error free. It was always going to be a hard song to pull off as it is just two acoustic guitars trying to hold a listeners attention. The melody, however, is still really strong. Ultimately I think the songs strength is that the solo track is probably my cleanest solo playing (It did take me enough takes after all).

Desire - The only song Ive done in one take and recorded in less than 5 minutes.
Its probably a song just for me as the emotion behind the song is hard to convey through a recorded medium. Also is the first song I recorded on a 12-string guitar which sounds like it was a bit out of tune when I did the recording (listen to the way it resonates when I strum a chord).