TJIW Bio
When Momin was an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn NY in 2017, he’d invited Val Jeanty for an informal jam session, which led to the formation of Turning Jewels Into Water. The name of the project alludes to one of the impacts of climate-change where water itself will become an extremely precious resource in the near future. Their collaboration, rooted in improvisation, evokes the esoteric realms of the creative subconscious. Drawing from the voodoo religion, Val recreates the ancient rhythms and pulse of Haiti through digital beats, while Momin, rooted in Indian folk and Black Music traditions, is also influenced by street music from Sao Paulo to Durban. Drawing on the AACM motto of “ancient to the future,” they employ cutting-edge music-technological tools such as Ableton, acoustic drums outfitted with Sensory Percussion triggers, Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) drum pads and Smart Fabric MIDI Controllers, to create music with spiritual resonance.
They have released a critically-acclaimed full-length album on the Chicago-based FPE Records, entitled A Map of Absences. Their music was described by Bandcamp as ‘a sound that feels deeply rooted in tradition, but adapted for a generation of people who care as much about their roots as they do innovation.’
They have toured Europe and the US, and most notably have performed at the Earshot Festival (Seattle, WA, US) Bang On A Can Marathon (New York City, NY, US), ZEZ Festival (Croatia) and Tarcento Jazz Festival (Italy.)
In 2020, Momin was awarded a prestigious grant from NewMusic USA for Turning Jewels into Water to collaborate with video artist Art Jones and dancers Rosalynd Harris and Infinite Lynn, to create an interdisciplinary work that depicted the transformation of an individual facing the impacts of climate change.
Val Jeanty Bio
Val Jeanty also known as Val-Inc is a Haitian Afrofuturist, drummer, turntablist, and professor at Berklee College of Music.
Jeanty is a pioneer of the electronic music sub-genre called Afro- Electronica or Vodou-Electro.
Jeanty’s Afro-Electronica performances have been showcased at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and internationally at the Venice Biennale in Italy.
She is the recipient of various grants and fellowships including
Van Lier Grant 2017, NYSCA/Roulette 2019 Residency, NYU/CBA Toulmin 2022 and the 2024 United States Artists Fellowship.
Ravish Momin Bio
Indian-born drummer/electronic music producer Ravish Momin (also known as Sunken Cages), studied with US Jazz master-drummer Andrew Cyrille. He has worked as a sideman with a wide array of musicians including US Jazz legend Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre (AACM/Chicago) and pop-star Shakira. In the past, he led Tarana, a shapeshifting global-Jazz trio, on international and domestic stages for the past 14 years
His current projects include ‘Turning Jewels Into Water’ (with Haitian electronic music pioneer Val Jeanty), a duo with dragonchild (Ethio-American saxophonist DA Mekonnen of Debo Band) and Zelzeleh (a Digital Sufi Ensemble)
He has recently produced tracks with South African Gqom group Phelimuncasi (Nyege Nyege Records), Saxophonist Maria Valencia (Meridian Brothers), along with producers Makossiri (Hakuna Kulala, Kenya), Saskia (QTV, Brazil), Kush Arora (Discrepant, US), Baba Sy (Jokkoo Collective, Spain/Senegal) and Rani Jambak (Indonesia, Yes No Wave)
He has done remixes for Depeche Mode, global electronic music producers Batida (Portugal), Babani Sound System (Mauritius), and Guedra Guedra (Morocco).
His recent performance highlights include the Free Forma Impulse Festival (Italy), AfroBanana Festival (Cyprus), Words/Beat/ Life Festival (Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (US)), Big Ears Festival (US), LeGuessWho? Festival (NL), Positive Futures Festival (AT), Lincoln Center Outdoors Festival (NYC, US), Slingshot Festival (US) and Festival Congedi (IT).
He is also the recipient of grants from New Music USA, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, NYC Arts In Education Roundtable, Arts International, Meet The Composer and NYSCA (New York State Council of the Arts)
Press
Bandcamp (Best of Summer 2020) (Diamond Sharp) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
If there was an award for best album names, electronica duo Turning Jewels Into Water would surely top the list. Their titles always sound like epic novels and their latest, Our Reflection Adorned By Newly Formed Stars, is no different. Much like their sophomore album, Map of Absences, their latest is a musical amalgamation of Ravish Momin & Val Jeanty’s cultures; combining Indian, West African, Middle Eastern, and Afro-Caribbean traditions. On the album opener “Swirl in the Waters,” electro synths are wedded with a Persian daf, and on “Crushed Petals and Stones Fall on My Drum,” classic Indian melodies are combined with rap and electronic beats. On the title track, erratic synths and electronic notes are interspersed with chants, making for an otherworldly listen. Momin and Jeanty already planned for remote contributions to be an integral part of this album in early 2020, before the pandemic-related shut-downs. With that, Iranian singer and daf player Kamyar Arsani and South African musician Mpho Molikeng contributed to Our Reflection Adorned By Newly Formed Stars, reinforcing the collaborative spirit of their self-identified “digital folk from nowhere.” Read More…
XLR8R (Luke Cheadle, Sept 2020 ) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
The new album dropped last month on FPE Records and is a masterclass in rhythm, instrumentation, and sampling, touching on dub, South African gqom, and eastern rhythmic styles. The duo worked with an ensemble of musicians from around the world, including Iranian singer/daf player Kamyar Arsani (based in Washington, DC) and friend Mpho Molikeng, a master musician of South African indigenous instruments, based in Lesotho. Read More…
Exclaim! (Angela Morrison, Aug 2020 ) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
Turning Jewels into Water actively decentre shallow, Westernized understandings of “world” music, and draw upon Jeanty and Momin’s personal experiences and intimate cultural knowledge to build layered electronic dreamscapes. Haitian-born Jeanty evokes the deep spiritual traditions of Vodou, while Momin reimagines Indian folk music and jazz, and magic emerges as the music swirls, skips, undulates and crashes like ocean waves. Read More…
Mixmag Feature (6 artists you need to check out/May 2019)
“The bass continuum is mutating again and the result is Turning Jewels Into Water, a collaboration between Indian-born jazz drummer and producer Ravish Momin and Haitian percussionist and turntablist Val Jeanty. Their debut album ‘Map Of Absences’ hops through jazz, rhythmic syncopations and dubby rumble. It’s as hypnotic as you might hope, and comes backed with killer remixes by Slikback and PlayPlay. Subwoofer recommended.” Read More…
AllMusic (4 stars) (Paul Simpson, March 28, 2019) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
“The duo keep their ear to global dance music innovations, dedicating one track to Lisbon-based visionary Nidia and handing others over to producers such as Kenya’s Slikback and Mexico City’s Nueve Vidas. While informed by styles like footwork and kuduro, TJIW never try to directly emulate them, instead forging their own cross-cultural path which envisions a more positive, unified world.” Read More…
Bandcamp (Album of the Day) (Shanice Brim, March 27, 2019) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
“The album’s 11 songs are heavily percussive, built from live instrumentation as well as electronic sounds and turntables. “Talang” works an idiosyncratic groove, with clipped vocal samples, video-gamey synths, and echoing drum patterns that alternate between layered, frenetic, and measured. The driving “Cave Rain Drumming in My Ear” builds its hyperactive rhythm from digital drums and pinprick vocal samples. And on the title track, the duo seems to be creating a drum circle for the digital age, opening with a ricocheting rhythm and gradually layering in synths and digital effects.” Read More…
National Sawdust Blog (Album of the Week!) (Steve Smith, March 15, 2019) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
“All those points of similarity resonate throughout Map of Absences, a
lean, taut collection of wiry beats, spacious echoes, and snatches of voices tugged out of their original contexts and set adrift in foreign terrains. It’s as important to remember, though, that for all their affinities, Jeanty and
Momin also are very different and distinct artists, and that’s every bit as much a part of their successful collaboration. I won’t pretend to know who’s doing what with 100 percent certainty: the
video for standout track “Dark Waters Rushing In” proves that Jeanty handles plenty of the percussive effects, while Momin does a lot more than just keep time. But here and throughout Map of Absences, Jeanty’s
self-proclaimed affinity for abstraction and mysticism melds beautifully with Momin’s lithe, propulsive rhythmic constructions.”
Read More…
PopMatters (Spyros Stasis, March 11, 2019) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
“Map of Absences is an ambitious work and one that reveals the grand vision of Turning Jewels Into Water. Still, the duo is capable of also binding these impenetrable structures with slightly lighter motifs. The push
towards rave-like motifs is very nicely adapted to that effect, while at other times a post-club rendition prevails. It is a nice cherry on top for an already impressive work.”
Read More…
Pittsburgh Current (Feature article/Mike Shanley, March 5, 2019) [for Turning Jewels Into Water]
The release of their new album Map of Absences coincides with the appearance in Pittsburgh [at the Warhol Museum.] On the album, Jeanty, whose past collaborations include the late Geri Allen, and Momin might rely on electronics to create their music but they infuse it with the real-time reactions they honed as improvisers. Read More…
AfroPunk (Piotr Orlov, Jan 28, 2019)
“Dark waters rushing in” is the sound of all these past-times and influences, as manifested through spare electronics. Dub-heavy with the bass settings stuck on “overwhelming,” TJIW’s track is also streaming with rhythmic ideas, mirroring a wide variety of local, next-generation beats-makers all over the world: Chicago footwork, Durban’s Gqom, Lisbon and Luanda’s post-Kuduro and -Kizomba fusions, and BK’s own flex productions — all find a space in the duo’s hard-drive, with Jeanty’s scratches and Momin’s drones adding layers to the organized chaos.” Read More…
IndieRocks (Andres Angeles, Aug 30, 2018)
[translated] “Ghostly voices, dislocated beats and a digital amalgam flow within their songs along with mutant dubs, polyrhythmic percussions and interferences produced by synthesizers and futuristic turntables.”
“Voces fantasmales, beats dislocados y una amalgama digital fluyen dentro de sus canciones junto con dubs mutantes, percusiones polirítmicas e interferencias producidos por sintetizadores y tornamesas futuristas.” Read More…
Noisey|Vice (Interview/Luis Cleriga, Aug 21, 2018)
[translated] “Together, Turning Jewels Into Water create a microcosm that gives a breath of freshness to the rhythms that permeate current electronics and the post-digital universe.”
“Juntos, como Turning Jewels Into Water, crean un microcosmos que le da una bocanada de frescura a los ritmos negros que permean la electrónica actual y el universo post-digital.” Read More…
Ultramarinos (Aug 22, 2018)
[translated] “The project of Ravish and Val has penance in its name: Turning Jewels Into Water, transforming jazz into electronic music, turning dance into ritual and yes, turning realities into a single jewel, since talking about them also implies talking about the migration; of two people outside their country turning their talent into something as essential as water.”
“El proyecto de Ravish y Val lleva en el nombre la penitencia: transformar las joyas en agua, transformar el jazz en música electrónica, convertir el baile en ritual y sí, convertir las realidades en una sola joya, pues hablar de ellos también implica hablar de la migración; de dos personas fuera de su país convirtiendo su talento en algo tan esencial como el agua.” Read More…
Vans|MX (Yannick SM, Aug 13, 2018)
[translated] “The elements that at times sink us into a spiritual terrain also suggest nuances in the background, but above all, they are the clear example of how different artistic discourses can be perfectly congenial to accommodate new creative possibilities.”
“Los elementos que por momentos nos hunden un terreno espiritual, también sugieren matices ambientales de fondo, pero sobre todo, son el claro ejemplo de cómo discursos artísticos diferentes pueden congeniar perfectamente para dar cabida a nuevas posibilidades creativas.” Read More…
Deposito Sonoro (DS Staff, July 16 2018)
[translated] “Thus, Turning Jewels Into Water is a new beginning with futuristic roots that give rise to mutant dubs, sine waves, polyrhythmic percussions and static interferences of an aerial console, through haunted turntables and post-apocalyptic synthesizers fused in the legacy of jazz, the illbient and the Afroelectronics.”
“Así, Turning JewelsInto Water es un nuevo inicio con raíces futuristas que dan lugar a dubs mutantes, ondas senoidales, percusiones polirrítmicas e interferencias estáticas de una consola áerea, mediante tornamesas embrujadas y sintetizadores post-apocalípticos fundidos en la herencia del jazz, el illbient y laafroelectrónica” Read More…
TheAnswerIsInTheBeat
Percussionist Ravish Momin and Haitian turntablist Val Jeanty (aka Val-Inc) present a brief but potent EP of broken rhythms and lost afterlife transmissions. With eerie voices asking existentialist questions and diced up on a turntable, and heavy, unsteady beats booming on top, this sounds like the ’90s WordSound illbient scene updated for the era of footwork, Principe Discos, and Nyege Nyege Tapes. Not coincidentally, two producers from the latter label remixed the title track, although one of the mixes is digital-only. Slikback’s remix reminds me of Addison Groove’s juke/dubstep crossover tracks from nearly a decade ago. “Lights Below the Water” houses fractured earth rhythms, and “Vishwas” is an absolutely heavy bass killer, shaking right down to the foundation and responding with snapping snares and dubbed-up b-boy chants. Then it all builds up to a near panic attack before the very end. Read More…