Chronicling life in the COVID-era through music, song, spoken word, traditional South Asian percussion, and contemporary electronic production, I should have hugged you tighter when we last met [Oh What A Joy] was conceived, recorded and completed during June 2020, with the support of Opera North’s artist development programme, Resonance: The Lockdown Edition.

The unique work, straddling contemporary music, poetry, documentary and oral history, brings together artists from Manchester and London [UK] to Kingston [JA] to address the impact of COVID-19 on communities of colour worldwide.

Lead artist Balraj Singh Samrai [aka Samrai of Swing Ting] first sketched out an instrumental track, which was sent to tabla player Vikaash Sankadecha, whose credits include Nitin Sawhney, Shakira and MIA, to add his irresistible rhythmic tones.

This edit was sent to producer, vocalist, writer and member of Jamaican collective Equiknoxx, Gavsborg, who responded the next day with a poignant poem. Next, Manchester-based spoken word artist Farah Ahmad Khan contributed a moving spoken word work to complement Gavsborg’s monologue.

A Zoom discussion between Balraj and Tunde Adekoya, community organiser and Director of Manchester’s Big People Music, found its way into the piece, contemplating the impact of COVID-19 on Black, Asian, Indigenous and Ethnic Minority groups.

Lastly, Jamaican vocalist and member of Equiknoxx Shanique Marie added her sweet and serene vocals to bind the work together.

The whole project was overseen and co-managed by Balraj’s ‘co-conspirator’, Pandit G, a founder member of Mercury-nominated group Asian Dub Foundation.

Matching phone and zoom footage of the process with the final audio mix, the video for the piece by film production company and social enterprise Rainbow Collective is an affecting and compelling document of our turbulent times, with a nod to the inescapable visuals of the video conference call.