Rivu

Subhagata Singha aka RIVU is a music composer / producer, guitarist & educator from Kolkata India.

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• His debut album THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OF LIGHT was called one of top 10 indie releases of 2017 in The Hindu. The paper said "there is a space-themed, vocoder-employing collection of songs that is as much about guitar wizardry as it is about synth wizardry, ambient layers and prog riffs. Singha finds a balance between all this to create a regal, half-orchestral sound that is about as epic as it gets."

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• Was selected as one of 10 participants internationally in FAMLAB IV 2022, a collaboration between the British Council Film and Music programme, the British Film Institute, and Sheffield’s Sensoria festival of film and music. There he collaborated with a number international composers and producers including Dilan Balkay (Turkey), Hayat Selim (Egypt/UK), Kris Halpin aka Dyskinetic (UK), Sonia Killmann (Glasgow), Corinne De San jose (Phillipines), Cristiana Ilie (UK) among others. His work was screened as part of the Deliaphonic Festival 2022 at the Coventry Cathedral.

 

• He is a writer and co-producer of the experimental electro-pop band Preying Mantis. Their debut album, I Eat You Eat Me was selected as one of the best albums of 2016 by OKListen.com

 

• His mainstay acts as a guitar player include Kendraka, Hybrid-X, Taal Tantra, Popcult, & Disco Inferno.

 

• As a session player, he's lent guitar and other duties to several acts. These include --- Sahana Bajpaie, Aditi Ramesh, Lakkhichhara, Neel Adhikari, Neel & The Lightbulbs, Parekh & Singh (Guitar and Bass), Varun Kishore - A History Of Clouds (guitar and Keyboard), Paloma & Adil, Bodhisattwa Ghosh (Keyboards on his solo album), Whale in The pond (Synth) Kiteloon (guitar and Bass), TL Mazumdar aka Everynowhere

 

• He has worked as a music programmer and co-producer for various Bengali films and TV shows including Borbaad, Yoddha, Khawto, Prakton, Jomer Raja Dilo Bor, Goenda Ginni, Mahanayak.

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• The advertisement jingles he's produced include work for brands like Pantaloons, Brittannia, Spykar Jeans, Asus, Senco Gold and Diamond Jewellery, Reebok, MTR, Big Basket, Tata Motors.

 

• He has worked as a Music Director and Choir Conductor for various school musicals in Kolkata including La Martiniere Schools ('Wicked'), St James School ('Smike' & Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'), South Point ('Pihsdneirf'), Akshar ('The Hunchback Of Notre Dame' & 'Alice In Wonderland'), Birla High School ('The King & I'), St John's Diocesan ('The Sound Of Music'), Mahadevi Birla World Academy ('The Lion King' & 'The Little Mermaid')

 

• His versatility working with music and sound design has not only given him experience playing in live bands, creating sound for films, serials, ads, and musicals for schools, but has also seen him work with theatre groups such as, The Red Curtain, Paper Faces ('Sweeney Todd'), Ranan (including their internationally touring show 'Shunya Se' and their tenth anniversary production 'Ten' where he composed a piece on the '10 Avatars of Vishnu'), and various independent productions such as 'Main Lover' and 'Exit'.

 

• With ThinkArts he devised and created an interactive music room as part of an immersive sensory installation for children called Elements. The room was designed by him using Arduino, lasers, infrared motion sensors, ultrasonic distance sensors, various kinds of microphones, and music software (Ableton and Cubase). The installation arose out of work developed between a group of artists from diverse fields, from puppetry to clay molding.