VEL VEL, by SISTRUM

VEL VEL

by SISTRUM

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
180g vinyl release of our field recordings. Pressed on opaque yellow vinyl!

Includes unlimited streaming of VEL VEL via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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edition of 130

$48 SGD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

$48 SGD or more

1.	Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple 09:00	info
2.	Serangoon Road 10:34	info
3.	Selegie Road 10:17	info
4.	Dhoby Ghaut to Tank Road 14:34	info
5.	Sri Thendayuthapani Temple 11:22	info

about

Vel Vel is a collection of audio recordings from Thaipusam, a 4-km procession that takes place on the streets of Singapore every year. Celebrated primarily by the Tamil Hindu community on the full-moon day of the Tamil month of Thai, which falls in January or February, Thaipusam தைப்பூசம் is one of the most iconic cultural events in the country. Music and chanting are vital elements of the ritual procession. The soundscapes in this album present the experience of walking along the pilgrimage route that begins at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple at Serangoon Road and culminates at the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple at Tank Road. The latter is one of Singapore’s oldest Hindu temples
dedicated to the deity Murugan.

The album uses sound to explore the places of Thaipusam and to listen to the ways in which communities interact during the festival. While the selection is taken from many hours of audio material recorded between 2011 and 2016, the soundscapes have been carefully edited and condensed to create an effect of being captured in real time during a single 24-hour procession.

Vel Vel documents the acoustic realities of Singapore’s urban space, capturing a particular streetscape over time and giving attention to everyday sounds, people and music in a continuum of interdependency. The album also records the rapidly changing intangible heritage of Thaipusam, which has experienced moments of decline, such as when
restrictions were imposed on the playing of musical instruments along the procession route between 1973 and 2012.

Vel Vel is a long-term project that Sistrum initiated in 2020, when a global pandemic silenced the celebration of Thaipusam for the first time in more than a hundred years. An early version of these soundtracks was created as part of Vel Vel: A Sonic Walk, a web app commissioned by The Arts House that ran from January 2021 to January 2022, featuring narration by Brown Voices. The soundtracks are also an integral part of the installation Vel Vel: The Burden Dance, curated by Sistrum and held at the Asian Civilisations Museum from 25 November 2022 to 26 March 2023.

The album consists of five tracks and seeks to invoke an authentic sense of place, sound and energy. The locations associated with each track is identified on a map on the inner sleeve. We hope this will help listeners imagine the experience of being there, moving along the road enveloped by the sounds, colours and dances of Thaipusam.

credits

released January 28, 2024

Field recording and sound editing: Ramesh Krishnan
Graphics: Lim Shu Min
Text: Laura Miotto
Photographs: KC Eng

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about

SISTRUM Singapore

SISTRUM is an interdisciplinary collective of three artists: sound designer Ramesh Krishnan, graphic designer Lim Shu Min and architect Laura Miotto . They create installations, exhibitions and digital platforms that explore the narrative quality of sound and the environment. ... more