Shri Sriram, Dennis Rollins, Bellatrix and more captivate on Croydon Composers Vol.3

Created by BASCA-award winning composer, producer and bassist Shri Sriram, Project Director Shirin Sriram and Music Business Consultant Michael Fuller, dynamic production company Drum The Bass founded Croydon Composers Online that has brought together a ground-breaking, cross-genre musical collaboration between 25 musicians, composers and producers. The initiative was launched in response to the ongoing closure of music venues, with the resulting album recorded and produced in lockdown, with the third installment released today 20 November.

Featuring duos and trios creating brand new music together, the genre-hopping results seamlessly blend rap, reggae, jazz, Indian classical music, rock and free-flowing vocals across 11 tracks that reflect the cultural melting pot in and around the Croydon area.

Collaborators include the project’s overall bassist/executive producer Shri, award-winning trombonist Dennis Rollins join forces on one of the album’s stand-out tracks ‘Mind Run Fee’, while pianist and composer Roland Perrin is heard to great effect alongside tabla player Prathap Ramachandra on the Weather Report-Indo-jazz influenced ‘Samageeta’. Other guests include Heaven 17’s keyboardist Florence Sabeva, singer/songwriter and beatboxer Bellatrix, award-winning rapper Tubby Boy, global DJ and producer Adam Scrimshire, singer songwriter Lucinda Drayton, Syrian oud player Rihab Azar, MOBO-nominee and Afrobeats performer Silvastone, spoken-word artist Amen Noir, former Notting Hillbillies bassist Marcus Cliffe, digital roots producer Adam Prescott, former percussionist with Youssou N’Dour Ndiaga Issa Mbaye.

Commenting on the album Shri said: “This year Croydon Composers has been an exceptionally enjoyable process full of discovery, learning and excitement. Every collaboration has a unique flavour and approach and I believe every track is outstanding. It was hard work for the team and me to mentor, arrange, coordinate and be diplomatic with 25 artists - most of it online - but every sound that came back was so inspiring that it constantly re-affirmed our vision and kept us forging ahead! We decided to do the project now because we didn’t want to just wait till music venues are able to open up again. I hope everyone enjoys the results as much as we do!”

Watch the video to ‘Dare You’ by Bellatrix, Sara Hirole and Tunde Jegede below and for more info visit www.croydoncomposers.co.uk/vol3