16 Sri Lankan Piano Isles – Tanya Ekanayaka
16 Sri Lankan Piano Isles is the latest album from internationally renowned composer-pianist Dr Tanya Ekanayaka and will be released on May 23rd, 2025.
Sri Lanka consists of a beautiful main island and over a hundred small tropical isles spread around her coast and inland. These isles are rich in natural beauty and home to diverse wildlife, plants, and unique ecosystems. Small communities inhabit some, while many remain untouched.
16 Sri Lankan Piano Isles is inspired by a selection of these isles. Each composition, or "Isle", tells a story and reflects a personal journey, drawing from the natural environment of a specific isle. The chosen isles are from all around the coast and inland of Sri Lanka.
An accompanying theme throughout the music is water—vital to the isles' existence—its movement, waves, and presence. The compositions allude to this through flourishes, ornamentation, and repeating rhythmic patterns. While these elements may seem influenced by Western art music, they also reflect the influence of traditional Sri Lankan music genres which are part of Tanya Ekanayaka’s heritage.
The album consists of two types of compositions. The first eight were composed between 2022 and 2024. Like traditional sheet music compositions, they were fully created before being recorded, though never written down. Despite not being written, they exist in the artiste’s memory in full detail and are published as recordings.
The other eight compositions, labelled "Extempore", were created and recorded simultaneously on a single day, in April 2024—a form of artistry never presented through any of Tanya Ekanayaka’s previous work. All were performed in a single take, making them unique to that moment. Each Extempore composition contains a short, pre-composed motif—lasting from half a second to ten seconds. These motifs are inspired by specific aspects of the corresponding isles and serve as a foundation for the surrounding spontaneous music. The motifs will stay the same whenever these Extempore compositions are performed again, but the rest of the compositions will change, as the composer-pianist reimagines them in real time. The first part of each Extempore title (e.g. Elubu-Extempore) comes from the name of the isle it represents. This contrasts with the other eight compositions, which are named after themes or specific elements of their isles. Elubu-Extempore is the album’s first single, releasing May 2nd, 2025.
The composer-pianist writes “The evolution of ‘16 Sri Lankan Piano Isles’ is rooted in my deep affection for these isles and concerns for their conservation, as a Sri Lankan, privileged and profoundly grateful to know what growing up and living amidst the breathtaking natural beauty of my homeland feels like.”
Dr Tanya Ekanayaka, who is Sri Lankan–British, is one of the world’s most prolific female composer-pianists as well as being a record producer and scholar.
For further information please contact Amelia Zimmatore | amelia@arcmusic.co.uk | +44(0)1342 770478
ARC Music Productions Int Ltd, PO Box 111, East Grinstead, RH19 4FZ, UK | www.arcmusic.co.uk