Songs to save the environment

Award-winning singer Sushma Soma is the latest artiste who is using music to galvanise support for climate action, writes Ram Rakshith V

Humans, nature and the importance of coexistence... Musicians are increasingly exploring this theme in their albums. Their hope is to galvanise people to take climate action and save the environment from deterioration.

Most recently, musician and environment activist Ricky Kej from Bengaluru co-won a Grammy award for ‘Divine Tides’. The album calls for behavioural change to combat climate change because waiting for governments to act would be too late. In 2019, he reminded people to live in harmony with nature with ‘One Family’, a song that was filmed in the majestic backdrop of Leh.

Last year, Bombay Jayashri and Shankar Mahadevan lent their voices to ‘Dharti Ma’, an album to commemorate the 50th year celebrations of Earth Day.

Internationally, American singer Pete Seeger released his first environmentalist album ‘God Bless the Grass’ in 1966. In his song ‘Mack the Bomb’, he drew a comparison between a shark and a radioactive element. We fear sharks because we can see them. But radioactive substances are an invisible danger, which can unleash a catastrophe, destroying humans, soil, water, and air at the same time.

Then pop singer Michael Jackson won the world’s attention with his 1995-hit ‘Earth Song’. The music video is a montage of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution, poverty, war and other issues.

Traditionally too, our classical music has given an ode to nature. In Carnatic music, it is said that raga Amrithavarshini brings rain. In Hindustani music, the belief is associated with Megh Malhar.

Award-winning singer Sushma Soma, who is from Chennai but is based in Singapore, is the latest to join the bandwagon. In collaboration with Aditya Prakash, a vocalist based in the US, she recently released ‘Home’, an album of seven contemporary Carnatic songs that are inspired by disturbing news stories concerning the planet.

Sushma shares why she conceptualised the album: “Instances like the death of a pregnant elephant in India after eating a pineapple stuffed with explosives, and the loss of indigenous plants and wildlife in the Amazon forest fires inspired me.”

The rampant use of single-use plastic and the blatant wastage of resources also bothered her.

Commenting on the power of music in bringing social change, Sushma says that music can stir emotions and convey stories that can be challenging for listeners to grasp otherwise.

For instance, Varali is a meditative raga but she has used it to express rage in this album. “Raga Shankarabharanam can be used to express compassion in a song, and exuberance in another,’’ she continues.

Sushma has also made use of ambient sounds like the whirring noise of an electric saw, the creaking of a large tree before its death, carry bags being crumpled, and plastic sachets being torn open.