Talvin Singh

Born in London to ethnic Indian parents who had recently fled Idi Amin's Uganda, DJ/producer/percussionist Talvin Singh began learning to play the tabla at age five. When he was 15, he went to India to study classical percussion. Upon his return to England, however, he began to pursue a more pop-oriented career working with artists like Björk, and started DJing an Asian night called Anokha at London's Blue Note club. In 1997, he released a compilation CD, Talvin Singh Presents Anokha: Soundz of the Asian Underground, a calling card for the Asian Underground movement's arrival on the international scene.

Singh's own debut album in 1998, OK (Island), with guest artists like producer and bassist Bill Laswell, composer and multi-instrumentalist Ryuichi Sakamoto, and sarangi player/vocalist Ustad Sultan Khan, signaled a new meshing of drum 'n' bass with traditional and classical Indian sounds. Singh's cross-cultural samplings were richly received, and he won the U.K.'s prestigious Mercury Prize the following year.

In 2000, Singh joined forces again with Ustad Sultan Khan along with fellow percussionists Zakir Hussein, Trilok Gurtu and Karsh Kale for Tabla Beat Science, an influential project helmed by Bill Laswell that resulted in two albums for the Palm Pictures label: 2000's Tala Matrix, the 2001 two-disc CD set Live in San Francisco at Stern Grove and double DVD Talamanam Sound Clash: Further Adventures in Hypercussion.

As a canny producer and remixer, Singh has collaborated with the master musicians of Jajouka, producing the Philips release Master Musicians of Jajouka Featuring Bachir Attar in 2000, and contributed to Star Rise, a 1997 album of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan remixes featuring many stars of the Asian underground. —Anastasia Tsioulcas