ARCHIVAL. REVIVAL.
Amarrass Society for Performing Arts.
Our Mission - Creating Sustainable Livelihoods
The Amarrass Society for Performing Arts (ASPA) was established in 2010 as a not-for-profit organization. We are dedicated to creating sustainable livelihoods for folk musicians and craftspeople.
We address the urgent need to preserve traditional methods of instrument making. These skills are fast disappearing due to modernization, lack of opportunities, and disaffected youth.
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Our core belief is that we must work with the last remaining keepers of these centuries-old traditions. These keepers include craftsmen, singers, poets, and musicians. Our goal is to preserve and disseminate their knowledge and skills, and ultimately, to train the next generation.
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Our Actions ASPA travels into remote regions of India to:
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Research, archive, and record folk and regional music and poetry.
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Develop relationships with traditional instrument makers.
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Promote and create market and trade opportunities for musicians and indigenous craftspersons.
Outcomes
Amarrass Field Recordings
Amarrass Records was born in 2009 out of one simple question: who are India's folk masters? When the founders couldn't come up with names, they decided to go find them. Armed with a borrowed analogue recorder, ten tapes and two microphones, Ashutosh Sharma drove deep into the deserts of Rajasthan, going village to village recording musicians who had never been documented before.
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What came out of those trips changed everything. Single-take, analogue recordings made inside the homes of the artists themselves. Raw, unfiltered and deeply human. Their first two field recording albums, Mitha Bol and Banko Ghodo, both received five stars from Songlines UK. One of those trips led to the discovery of Manga Khan, whose voice became the foundation of the Barmer Boys. Today the Amarrass catalogue holds over 14 albums and has taken Rajasthani folk music to stages across 25 countries. These are not studio productions. They are documents of a living tradition, captured honestly, at the source.
Padma Shri Sakar Khan with sons Ghewar and Darra perform “The Train,” marking Jaisalmer’s rail arrival.
Barmer Boys perform “Pir Jilani,” honoring Sufi saint Abdul Qadir Gilani with Mangey Khan on vocals, rooted in tradition.
Jalal Khan and family reinterpret Bulleh Shah’s Sufi poetry, keeping tradition alive.
Sakar Khan and Firoze Khan perform “Minaro,” showcasing traditional kamaicha and dholak.
Bagga Khan and Meisa Ram perform a soulful Meera bhajan from the Thar desert.
Hakam Khan and Roshan Khan perform “Antariyo,” a traditional Manganiyar song from Rajasthan.
Kamachi Revival Project
The revival of the Kamaicha with Shankara Suthar, the last known Kamaicha maker in India, is a cornerstone of our work. It was when recording at home Sakar Khan when he mentioned that there is just 1 Kamaicha maker, as the rest do the touristy jobs; later this was confirmed by the late John Singh of Jaipur Virasat Foundation.
At the time, Shankara was making sofas in Pune!! Adding to the work of archiving music, I realised revival of the instrument making was crucial to this work and since all this work was not-for-profit, we started Amarrass Society for Performing Arts. We called Shankara back to Jaisalmer and gave him an order of 2 kamaichas to be made under the supervision of Sakar ji, and the revival began!
Morchang making
-The Art of the Morchang Experience the raw resonance of a hand-crafted masterpiece. Forged in a traditional mud-pit kiln with goat-skin bellows, every morchang by Mohan Lal Lohar is a testament to centuries of craft.
We also believe in supporting our artists directly in times of crisis. During the pandemic, the Amarrass COVID-19 Fund was established to provide direct relief, with 100% of all funds raised going to our artists and their families to ensure their immediate well-being.