Shunya

Shūnya (AKA Bal Singh) is a Melbourne based electronic and Indian classical musician. He is an artist that is seamlessly weaving together his internal dichotomy of beat nerd/electronic producer and trained Indian classical musician.

Born into a musical family, it was his father, a professional tabla player and percussionist that initiated his love for music, first through a steady stream of eclectic and Indian classical records, and then later, putting his hands onto the tabla.

Eventually he travelled to Malaysia and then India to study the more esoteric aspects of Indian classical music. First the sitar with internationally renowned musician Samuel Dass and then he was awarded a fellowship by the Australian Arts Council to study from India’s top sarangi player and living legend, Ustad Sabri Khan.

While being drenched in this ancient musical tradition, he has continued an obsession with electronic and innovative music creation,drawing on a range of diverse influences such as Talvin Singh, Flying Lotus and Sigur Ros.

He relocated to Melbourne from Perth after finishing his studies and, from somewhere in the space between a myriad of influences, neoteric sounds and beats – began incarnating.

On his first EP he has collaborated with a diverse range of musicians including renown Melbourne/L.A. MC Elf Transporter ( MetaBass n Breath, Combat Wombat), Indian Bansuri player Vinod Prasanna and vocalists Aarti Jadu, Nisha and Holly Megan.

The word Shūnya is the philosophical concept of the non-duality between infinite and finite. It is represented by the circle “O” and it reflects his personal and artistic philosophy of a non-duality in genre and style that has been discovered through a very unique musical path that reconciles but simultaneously celebrates diversity.