Gurupriya Atreya & Vendanth Bharadwaj have created a lullaby repertoire of 400 songs

Alia Bhatt’s beautifully articulated Malayalam lullaby Unni Vavavo went viral on social media recently, but singer-composer-researcher duo Gurupriya Atreya and Vedanth Bharadwaj have been working with this “probably most ancient form of song” since Covid hit in 2020. The duo collaborated recently with Aazhi Archives headed by artist Riyas Komu, and performed a concert, titled Lullabies from Kochi, in Mattancherry, to celebrate the area’s ancient cosmopolitan diaspora.
“During the pandemic, we had put out a call for a lullaby workshop called Sing a Lullaby, because Vendanth had wanted to bring out a lullaby album. I too, have a history with lullabies, because the first voice sample I recorded for a commercial project was one. It is a very rare pick; normally you would pick something to pick your skills in. So Vedanth said let’s start with a workshop,” says Gurupriya.

Gurupriya and Vedanth had about 10 lullabies on hand to start with; today, they have documented and shared about 400 from India and around the world. “At the year-long workshop, we taught one lullaby a week. So we covered 52 lullabies in 38 languages. We started with over 100 participants, which included a mixed group of children to mothers, grandmothers and single people, who were interested in lullabies. The idea was to learn it and sing it to your loved ones. We finally had over 400 ‘lullabiers’ from India and around the world,” she says.
The duo felt that their diverse range of lullabies would work well in Kochi and decided to collaborate on the concert, which they plan to hold again next year. “Mattancherry has several ethnic communities, from Gujaratis, Rajasthanis, Maharastrians, Kannadigas, and then, the Jews and Anglo Indians. So, we felt that our project, which had lullabies from all these languages, including Malayalam of course, would work so well here,” says Vedanth, adding that they do concerts and live workshops across the country.
The documentation of the lullabies involve recording the songs that the two singers have gathered, and researching and recording their history. “We look into lullabies word by word; the etymology, the pronunciation, and how and where it started. Lullabies are probably the oldest genre of music and it is something that everyone can relate to. The language sets it apart, but when you look beyond, you see the synchronicity; they talk about nature, birds, animals, the moon, the wind, food. They are even lullabies to scare kids to sleep,” says Vedanth, laughing.

An ancient lullaby with unique sounds
Sharing a story about a unique and ancient lullaby from Rajasthan, Vedanth says, “There is a Saraiki lullaby which persuades and cajoles the child to sleep, speaking about giving a massage, a toy and tasty food, but nothing works. Then, the song has onomatopoeic sounds of ululations to ward of spirits and of the baby still crying. The language is from the western part of Rajasthan and eastern Pakistan. It was taught to us by a Rajasthani folk singer. It is an ancient lullaby and one version has a mention of Soordas in it.”
Check out their work here
www.singalullaby.in