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Nitin Sawhney
Nitin Sawhney
Background information
Genre(s)	jazz, drum and bass, hip hop
Occupation(s)	Producer, Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, orchestral composer,
Website	http://www.nitinsawhney.com

Nitin Sawhney is a London-based composer and DJ of various styles of music, including jazz, drum and bass, hip hop, flamenco and modern orchestral compositions. His major works include Beyond Skin, Prophesy, Human, and Philtre. He is considered one of the pioneers of what is known as the Asian Underground music scene, defining a music genre that mixes south-Asian musical influences with western electronica and breakbeat style.

Nitin was raised in Rochester, Kent, England and attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School. He studied law at Liverpool University for a short time. Then he went to London, where he met Sanjeev Bhaskar. The pair became friends and created a comedy double act, The Secret Asians, together. The show sought to turn absurdly dated Asian stereotypes on their heads. It led to a contract with BBC radio and eventually grew into the award-winning BBC TV sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.

During that time he met up with an old school friend, acid-jazz keyboards-player James Taylor. He joined Taylor for a 40-date tour in as part of The James Taylor Quartet. It introduced him to the jazz club scene and provoked him into forming his own band, The Jazztones. He moved on to join forces with tabla master Talvin Singh to form the Tihai Trio and, after that collaboration ended in 1993, released his debut album, Spirit Dance on his own label. Shortly afterwards, he signed with Outcaste Records.

Sawhney has released 7 studio albums - each one garnering critical acclaim. London’s Outcaste Records released the breakthrough Gold certified Beyond Skin in ’99, which took a prestigious Technics Mercury Music Prize nomination and won Sawhney the coveted South Bank Show Award. Subsequently, Richard Branson’s V2 Records signed Sawhney to a six-album deal, and released the millennial epic and Silver certified Prophesy in 2001 (winning a MOBO Award as well as the BBC Radio 3 Music Award). Sawhney’s seventh studio album, Philtre, was released in May 2005 and he is currently recording his 8th album, London Under Sound, for release in 2008. Clubland saw a welcomed return by Sawhney in 2004, with the release of All Mixed Up – the definitive Nitin Sawhney remix collection and FabricLive.15, released worldwide by London superclub Fabric. This year District 6 Recordings will release “In the Mind Of…Nitin Sawhney”, the first global release of their new compilation series. He has toured each of his albums extensively and has sold-out many of the world’s most prestigious live venues. Sawhney has worked with a host of artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Sting, Sinead O’Connor, A R Rahman, Jeff Beck

To date, Sawhney has scored over forty films from his London-based Spirit Dance studios, as well as having scored TV ads for the likes of Nike and Sephora. His music for Channel Four’s Second Generation saw him nominated for the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Film and TV Composition (2004), and his scores have accompanied everything from dark, high-tension drama to light-hearted animatronics. Known for his incredible degree of versatility Sawhney has established himself as one of the world’s leading scorers for film and television, and previously judged the Best Film & TV Score categories at the 2005 BAFTAS. Recent works include scores for Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair’s adaptation of [[Jhumpa Lahiri]’s, The Namesake (Fox Searchlight 2007), as well as Natural World Symphony for the BBC. He is currently producing 3.5 hours of music for Sony Playstation 3’s Heavenly Sword(starring Andy Serkis) – widely regarded as being the most anticipated game in videogames history, and will also score The Fifth Beatle, a major studio film currently in production.

An acclaimed flamenco guitarist and classical/jazz pianist, Sawhney’s musical ability to transcend cultural barriers has gained him much recognition within the Classical community. In 2006 Sawhney composed a 1hr 20-minute symphony to accompany Franz Osten’s 1929 silent film classic, A Throw of Dice, which premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London. A Throw of Dice has since been performed live with the Metropole Orchestra and is currently touring with the leading orchestras of world. He has also worked with the BBC Concert Orchestra (Natural World Symphony) and the Philharmonia Orchestra (The Namesake). In 2004, Sawhney was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia to compose several new performance works. Other past commissions include 2000’s Urban Prophecies for The Proms, as well as 2001’s Neural Circuits for the Britten Sinfonia and leading British pianist, Joanna MacGregor. Sawhney will premiere new works during his performance at the 2007 Proms in the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2000 Sawhney produced the Varekai album for Cirque du Soleil, taking his unique sound to an even-wider audience. In 2002 he worked with Akram Khan and Anish Kapoor, scoring the music to Khan’s critically acclaimed choreographed work Kaash, which toured worldwide between 2002 – 2003. Sawhney also wrote the music for Khan’s Zero Degrees (nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award), which premiered to rave reviews at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 2005. He has since been commissioned to score the forthcoming Mahabharata adaptation by Olivier-award winning writer Stephen Clarke, Simon McBurney’s A Disappearing Number for Complicite, and first-time theatrical director Jonathan Holmes’ Fallujah.

Much of Sawhney’s attention remains focused on the areas of education and community building, accepting the role of Artist in Residence for no less than 5 separate performing arts organisations across Great Britain and Asia. Sawhney joined Sir George Martin as a patron for the British Government’s Access-to-Music program and is also patron of the Raindance East Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards. Sawhney appears regularly as an arts and current affairs commentator on topical discussion and news programs such as the BBC’s Newsnight, Newsnight Review, and HardTalk. He has also written for UK national broadsheets: The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, and The Observer. In 2006 Sawhney was awarded an Honorary Graduate Degree from London’s South Bank University and in 2007 will be awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Kent.

This article or section contains unencyclopedic lists that may require cleanup. To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, please help improve this article by: removing items which are not notable, encyclopedic, or helpful from embedded lists; incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article; and discussing this issue on the talk page.

• Philtre (2005) V2
• Human (2003) V2
• Prophesy (2001) V2/BMG
• Beyond Skin (1999) Outcaste Records
• Displacing the Priest (1996) Outcaste Records
• Migration (1995) Outcaste Records
• Spirit Dance (1994) World Circuit

• All Mixed Up (2004) V2
• Fabric Live 15 (2004) Fabric
• In The Mind Of... (2007) District 6

• The Sikhs John Das / BBC TV Documentary Series
• Dance of Shiva Jamie Payne / Epiphany Productions
• Ivor The Invisible Hilary Audas / Paul Madden for Screen First / Channel 4 TV
• The Fiancee Alex Harvey
• Flight Alex Pillai / Hindi Pictures for BBC TV
• Staying Alive 3 MTV – for World Aids Day, December 2001 (Breathing Light from Prophesy)
• Anita & Me Metin Husseyin / Paul Raphael – November 2002, written by Meera Syal
• Bodily Harm Tim Supple / Catherine Wearing.-two-part drama series for Channel 4TV
• Pure Gilles MacKinnon / Howard Burch – world premiere November 2002
• 12th Night Tim Supple/ Rachel Gesua – a new adaptation for Channel 4 TV – aired Spring 2003
• Second Generation Jon Sen / Catherine Wearing –for Channel 4TV featuring Parminder Nagra and Om Puri 2003
• Still the Children are Here - Dinaz Stafford / Produced by Mira Nair, 2003
• England Expects Andy Smith – two part feature for BBC 1 (2004)
• Tamworth Two Metin Husseyin – animatronics film for ITV (2004)
• Hari Om Bharatballa – Debut Indo/French co-production for Bharatballa productions (2004)
• Lila Says Ziad Doueri – Huit et Demi production for cinema (2004)
• Angell’s Hell Saurabh Kakkar – ITV production for TV starring Sanjeev Bhaskar (Fall 2004)
• Lions in Peril Ingrid Kavalle – BBC production for Natural World (October 2004)
• Rose and Maloney Metin Husseyin/Catherine Wearing – ITV 3 part primetime drama (Fall 2005)
• Blindsight Robson-Orr Entertainment – feature film documentary
• Natural Fantasia Sean Christian/BBC – BBC Natural History Production (2005)
• Throw of Dice Franz Osten (1929) silent film – 1hr 20 minute orchestral score to be performed by the BBC
• Concert Orchestra UK Premiere March 2005 at London’s Barbican Theatre.
• Living Goddess From the producers of David La Chappelle’s RIZE, Dark Fibre Films/More Four (2007)
• The Namesake Mira Nair/Lydia Pilcher – feature film production for Fox Searchlight (2007)
• Heavenly Sword Ninja Theory/ Sony Playstation 3 – 4 hour orchestral score (2007)
• The Fifth Beatle Dir: Vivek Tiwary – major feature film about the life of Brian Epstein (2008)

• Urban Prophesies

Sawhney's work has been remixed by:

• 4hero
• Bugz in the Attic
• Joe Clausell
• Fink
• KV5
• London Elektricity
• MJ Cole
• Nasha
• Ojos de Brujo
• Rishi Rich
• Sei-ji
• Talvin Singh
• Freeform Five

Sawhney has written or produced music or remixes of various artists including:

• Amar - Warner Brothers recording artist
• Natacha Atlas
• Aya - Island Records recording artist
• Jeff Beck
• Bugz in the Attic - produced album Got the Bug and
• Cirque du Soleil - produced music for Varekai in 2000
• Aref Durvesh - Tabla player
• The Fireman - a project by Sir Paul McCartney
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
• Lamb - produced album Back to Mine
• Cheb Mami - produced album Dellali
• Robert Miles
• Momndo Gross - produced album Now You Know Better
• Khaled - Universal Records recording artist
• Joanna MacGregor - leading British Pianist
• Julian Lloyd Webber
• Shri
• Sinéad O'Connor

Sawhney has scored works such as:

• Stephen Clarke's Mahabharata adaptation
• Anish Kapoor
• Akram Khan's acclaimed choreographed work Kaash in 2002

Sawhney has worked together with these artists:

• Reena Bhardwaj (Albums Human, Philtre)
• Kavita Krishnamurthy

Sawhney has made guest appearances for releases by these artists:

• Ojos de Brujo

This article or section contains unencyclopedic lists that may require cleanup. To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, please help improve this article by: removing items which are not notable, encyclopedic, or helpful from embedded lists; incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article; and discussing this issue on the talk page.

Winner of the Culture Crossing category at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music.

Nominated for Best film or Television Score at the Ivor Novello Awards

Commission for Racial Equality Award

Nominated for Media Personality of the Year at RIMA Awards

The EMMA Award for Prophesy

The MUSO Award for Prophesy

The BBC Asia award for music for Prophesy

The MOBO Award for Prophesy

The Boundary Crossing Award from BBC 3 Music Awards for Prophesy

Best Mainstream Fusion Act for Beyond Skin at The Asian Pop Awards

Nomination for Technics Mercury Music Prize for Album of the year for Beyond Skin

The South Bank Award for Popular Music for Beyond Skin

The EMMA Award for Displacing the Priest

• Reena Bhardwaj
• Kavita Krishnamurthy
• Asian Dub Foundation
• Talvin Singh
• Tabla Beat Science
• Shri

• Official site
• BBC: Nitin Sawhney
• Interview with Graham Brown-Martin for Trace Magazine
• Indepth interview with Nitin Sawhney by Ashanti OMkar