Nitin Sawhney (raised in Rochester, Kent, England) is a London-based compos… Read Full Bio ↴Nitin Sawhney (raised in Rochester, Kent, England) 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. He does however dislike the tag of "world" music, describing it as musical apartheid.

Nitin attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School and studied law at Liverpool University for a short time. He then 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's music is intensely political, commonly approaching themes of multiculturalism, empowerment, identity, immigration, poverty, and spirituality. He is active as an artist in residence for five different performing arts organisations in Europe and Asia, and along with George Martin is a patron for the British Governments Access-to-Music Program which brings music education to the inner-city students.

Sawhney's skills include classical and jazz piano and flamenco guitar. He has released six studio albums, as well as countless remixes and collaborations. After releasing Beyond Skin on London's Outcaste Records in 1999, he was signed by V2 to do six albums. His first album with the Virgin subsidiary, the millennial/apocalyptical Prophesy, in 2001 won a MOBO Award and a BBC Radio 3 Music Award.

Sawhney's music is influenced by his roots in India, utilising and featuring Urdu and Hindi lyrics, Qawwali singing, tablas and other instruments from the subcontinent, and Raga phrasings in music which is often primarily meant for the dance floor.

Sawhney's work in production and arrangement has led to his working in film and television scores. He has scored television ads for Sephora and Nike, as well as more than 25 films from his London-based Spirit Dance Studios. He was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Film and TV Composition in 2004 for his music on Channel Four's film, Second Generation. From there, he has begun to see acceptance from the "classical" community, and in 2004 he was commissioned by the city of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Symphonia to compose new performance works. London's Royal National Theatre invited him to write, direct, and score a work to be opened in 2005.

For photographs and additional information visit Nitin's official site, www.NitinSawhney.com

Falling Angels
Nitin Sawhney Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It's a time for grown up boys
To make a mess of pretty things
To lose yourself and find
A peace in your good-bye
I lost my faith in you
To distant dreams of true
Nothing here redeems me
No angels to release me

Unchain my falling angels
Unchain my falling angels
To chain me

The shadows bury me
In rusty memories
Hopes for inside
My angels call good-byes
You lost that photo-album smile

To memories faded, faded, fading
Shall we fade child?

Overall Meaning

The lyrics in Nitin Sawhney's Falling Angels seem to be reflecting on the idea of growing up and the various ways in which we can lose ourselves in the process. It's a time for making mistakes and causing chaos, but even within that there can be a sense of finding peace in saying goodbye to certain things. The reference to losing faith in someone or something suggests a sense of disillusionment and disappointment, perhaps with the way life has turned out. This is compounded by the idea that there are no angels to offer redemption or help release the singer from these feelings.

The chorus of "Unchain my falling angels" is interesting as it suggests a desire to be set free from the weight of the past and the things that are holding the singer down. This could be their own mistakes or traumas they have experienced. However, the line "to chain me" adds a layer of complexity - it's almost as though the singer is asking to be freed from these things, but also acknowledge that they are a part of them and cannot be fully let go of.

The second verse is full of vivid imagery that speaks to the idea of memories and loss. The shadows burying the singer suggest a feeling of being overwhelmed and consumed by the past. The mention of a photo-album smile that has faded to memories also hints at a nostalgia for something that can never be regained. The repetition of the word "faded" adds to this sense of loss and inevitability. The final line, "shall we fade child?" seems to be a rhetorical question that drives home the idea that everything is transient and fleeting.

Overall, this song seems to be a meditation on the various ways in which we are shaped by our past, and how we can try to find a sense of freedom and release from it. The imagery is rich and poignant, and Nitin Sawhney's musical arrangement only adds to the atmosphere.

Line by Line Meaning

It's a time for grown up boys
It's a time for adult men to act recklessly

To make a mess of pretty things
To ruin beautiful things purposefully

To lose yourself and find
To become lost in the experience

A peace in your good-bye
Peace can be found in saying goodbye

I lost my faith in you
I have stopped believing in you

To distant dreams of true
I now believe in far-off dreams

Nothing here redeems me
There is nothing here that can save me

No angels to release me
There are no celestial beings to set me free

Unchain my falling angels
Set my failing hopes and dreams free

Unchain my falling angels
Please release my hopes and dreams

To chain me
So that my dreams will be fulfilled

The shadows bury me
The darkness overpowers me

In rusty memories
Old memories that have long been forgotten

Hopes for inside
Inner hopes and desires

My angels call good-byes
My dreams are fading away

You lost that photo-album smile
You no longer have that happy, carefree look

To memories faded, faded, fading
To memories that have become blurry and unclear

Shall we fade child?
Should we also let our dreams fade away?

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: NITIN SAWHNEY, TINA GRACE, JACOB GOLDEN

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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