Shunia: The Echoes Interview and Sounds of the African Diaspora
Weekend Echoes listeners hear the sound of the spirit when we talk with Shunia, the duo of Lisa Reagan and Suzanne Jackson. The two operatic singers go the atmospheric Kirtan route, turning Hindi chants into serene dream pop on an album produced by Jamshied Sharifi. We talk about being Miss Oklahoma, yoga, and dialing down operatic chops to tune in the spirit.
The ambient sounds of the African Diaspora. Unless you’ve been disconnected for the last month, you know that February is Black History Month. It’s not something we usually mark on the Echoes, but this year felt a little different, especially when I sometimes feel like we were becoming a Scandinavian show, you know the places that aren’t what a deranged President called shithole countries and are whiter than white. That made me want to take an assessment of the music we’re playing and if we are ignoring a sound that could be vital and perfect for the Echoes chill. As you’ll hear in this show, it turns out we aren’t. We’ve just never made a big deal about it. But we do that today as we journey through the African Diaspora of chilled and exotic sounds from Afro-futuristic jazz, world fusion, Detroit techno, deep space, and beyond.