The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain brings together a series of commissioned sonic projects, recordings of live performances and studio sessions compiled especially for Sharjah Biennial 16. Spanning jazz studies and electronic sounds, this album takes its inspiration from ancient stepwells in India and water wells in Sharjah's historic residences and courtyards, which serve as leitmotifs of ancestral memory, placemaking and cross-generational convening.
Drawing from the Indian Ocean littoral and Afro-Asian cultural memory, the artists on this record foreground the spiritual substance of resonance, avow non-linear storytelling, find adventure in percussive gradients and raise laments against tides of annihilation.
The art for this album includes photographs by M’hammed Kilito, made during his study of oases across Morocco. Continuing from this grounded inquiry, his work Kafila (2023–2024), commissioned for Sharjah Biennial 16, is exhibited at the historic venue Bait al Serkal.
Let us gather in active forms of vigil today and remain vigilant through deep listening, becoming possessed by sonority as gift and lament as subversive remembering. In this cohabitation of acoustic belonging, we act here and elsewhere as frequencies.
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and curated by Natasha Ginwala with Sarathy Korwar
SIDE A
Naima Nefertari – Mawu-Lisa (short version)
Nicolas Jaar – Cangilón
Asher Gamedze – Stranger No Death
dragonchild x Sunken Cages – Hadi Muhit (rework)
SIDE B
Tenma & Tishani Doshi feat. Chandralekha - The Hidden Centre
Sarathy Korwar, Deepak Unnikrishnan, Karthika Nair – PETTEE | Anything to Declare?
Chibite Group – Dunia
Boom.Diwan feat. Nduduzo Makhathini – The Pearl
Contributors: Tenma & Tishani Doshi feat. Chandralekha; Sarathy Korwar, Deepak Unnikrishnan, Karthika Nair; Chibite Group (Singing Wells); Boom.Diwan feat. Nduduzo Makhathini; Naima Nefertari; Nicolas Jaar; Asher Gamedze; dragonchild x Sunken Cages
This album is conceived and curated by Natasha Ginwala and Sarathy Korwar as part of Sharjah Biennial 16.
All contributions have either been created for this LP or adapted from pre-existing works.
Graphic design by Fold Media Collective, Sri Lanka
Photographs by M’hammed Kilito
The Sega Sega Band’s ‘Flora’ from Singing Wells and Belinda Zhawi aka MA.MOYO’s ‘Black Skin, White Lines’, courtesy of Colomboscope and conceived within Syma Tariq’s project A Thousand Channels, appear in the digital iteration of this record.