Student Stories: Arunava Chatterjee

Posted: 23/07/26 11:22 | 0 Comments

JISABOKE: An Awareness-Driven Journey Through Spoken Word, Sound and Collaboration

JISABOKE is an experimental spoken word and sound album that explores memory, identity, silence, empathy, emotional resilience, displacement, and belonging. It is a project that began with a simple question: what happens when music is not created only to be heard, but also to encourage people to pause, listen, reflect, and connect with their own experiences and those of others?

The album is built around a minimalist approach. Rather than relying on dense arrangements or conventional musical structures, JISABOKE allows space for silence, pauses, subtle textures, spoken words, and atmospheric sound. The minimalism is not simply an aesthetic choice; it is an important part of the album’s conceptual language. By leaving space within the music, the listener is invited to become more attentive—to the words, to the sounds, to the silences, and perhaps even to their own thoughts.

At its heart, JISABOKE is an awareness-driven project. It explores subjects that are deeply connected to the human experience but are often difficult to express openly. Memory, emotional vulnerability, displacement, isolation, empathy, and resilience are not presented as abstract ideas. They emerge through the voices, poetry, sounds, and musical responses of different contributors. The album hopes to create a space where listeners can recognise something of themselves while also becoming more aware of experiences that may be different from their own.

The project began unexpectedly as part of a music assignment for Unit 2.2 of the Open College of the Arts (OCA). What initially started as an academic exploration gradually developed into a much larger artistic journey. The assignment provided a starting point, but the project soon moved beyond the boundaries of an educational exercise. It became an opportunity to investigate collaboration, interdisciplinary practice, sound, spoken word, and the possibilities of creating music outside conventional formats. The album brings together poets, writers, songwriters, and musicians from different backgrounds and artistic perspectives. Instead of treating collaboration as simply adding different artists to a finished musical product, the project considers collaboration as an essential part of the creative process itself. Each contributor brings their own voice, experiences, language, artistic sensibility, and interpretation. The result is a body of work that moves between spoken word, contemporary songwriting, ambient textures, sound art, and instrumental music.

The The Shonai Collective has played a significant role in bringing this project together. The Collective is not simply a performing ensemble but a collaborative artistic platform that works across art forms and with artists from different parts of the world. In JISABOKE, this approach became particularly important. The production of JISABOKE was also undertaken in a completely independent and DIY manner. From developing the concept and coordinating collaborators to recording, production, communication, artwork, release planning, and promotion, the project was built without the support of a conventional record label or large production organisation.

JISABOKE was eventually released independently, allowing the album to reach audiences directly through digital platforms and other forms of distribution. The independent release is an extension of the project’s creative journey.

The project also began to take a different form when a pre-release listening session was held at Skinny Mo’s Jazz Club in Kolkata. Rather than presenting JISABOKE as a conventional concert, the session was designed as an opportunity for listeners to experience the album in its entirety and engage with its ideas. The intimate setting created a space for focused listening and reflection.

The response from the audience was particularly meaningful. Several attendees shared their emotional responses and personal reflections after the session. Their reactions demonstrated that the album could create a connection that extended beyond the music itself. The experience reinforced the idea that JISABOKE is more than an album—it can also become an immersive and awareness-driven listening experience.

Ultimately, JISABOKE is an invitation to listen differently. It asks us to slow down and pay attention—not only to music, but to voices, silences, stories, and experiences. It is a reminder that collaboration can create spaces where different perspectives meet, and that music can become a vehicle for awareness, dialogue, and human connection.

JISABOKE continues to seek new listeners, new spaces, and new conversations—one voice, one sound, and one shared moment of listening at a time.