A ground-breaking musical collaboration launched in response to the ongoing closure of music venues during Covid has resulted in the release of an 11 track album that reflects the cultural melting pot in Croydon.

Croydon Composers Vol.3 features a formidable lineup of highly experienced musicians, producers, and composers as well as start-up musicians and performers.

Created by the dynamic production company, Croydon-based Drum The Bass, Croydon Composers Online is the brainchild of artistic director and BASCA-award winning composer, producer and bassist Shri Sriram; project director Shirin Sriram, and music business consultant Michael Fuller. 

Featuring duos and trios creating brand new music together, the results blend rap, reggae, jazz, Indian classical music, rock and free-flowing vocals.

Among the collaborators are singer songwriter Lucinda Drayton, former Notting Hillbillies bassist Marcus Cliffe and singer Dede Davi – all from Thornton Heath.

Other contributors featured include: the project’s overall producer Shri Sriram, award-winning trombonist Dennis Rollins, pianist and composer Roland Perrin, Heaven 17’s keyboardist Florence Sabeva, singer/songwriter and beatboxer Bellatrix, award-winning rapper Tubby Boy, global DJ and producer Adam Scrimshire, MOBO-nominee and Afrobeats performer Silvastone, spoken-word artist Amen Noir, digital roots producer Adam Prescott and more.

The brand new album recorded and produced in lockdown, was released last month and includes accompanying music videos. The eleven tracks are available on Spotify, i-Tunes, Bandcamp, and Apple music.

Shirin, Shri and Michael have taken on the challenge of making each Composers project one bigger and better. The 10 musicians that gave an afternoon performance at Croydon Mela in 2017 grew into 16 musicians and 20 young musicians performing at Box Park Croydon in 2018.

Croydon Composers Online now boasts 25 participants from Croydon and around the UK and takes the project into exciting new territory.

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!

Project director Shirin Sriram said: “The excitement of the end result and the new sounds that arise from these collaborations, is what motivates and inspires us to keep reinventing, getting new ideas and developing the project further. This time around we have also loved the process of self-filmed videos which are professionally edited for each collaboration, which has added a new dimension to the project.”

Chetna Kapacee, Creative Industries and Culture Project Manager at Croydon Council, one of the supporters of the project: “Since 2017 Croydon Composers has connected many Croydon-based musicians of different genres and resulted in some really interesting and beautiful work. This online response to the pandemic is the logical next development. For our brilliant Croydon musicians the opportunity to collaborate with national and international artists is really wonderful.”