Equa

EQUA is a UK-based world fusion music project, founded by the multi-media artist and record producer Sadia Sadia and composer & sound designer Stephen W Tayler.

First released by Polygram (Australia) in 1996, and based on an original idea by Sadia Sadia, Equa's brief is to find links based on the commonality of human experience. The original album features music gathered by David Fanshawe in the Tropical Belt regions. These tracks were then compiled and cross-referenced by theme, region, instrument, key and tempo. This allowed the artists to search for the thematic and musical links in performances and samples, and translate these into a new context.

The resulting album begins with ‘Departure', of which an extended remix by Tricky also featured on the original single, and closes with an ‘Arrival'. The intervening tracks seek to mirror not only a physical but a spiritual journey. The album is intended to reflect the circadian rhythm of each day, as it begins with dawn sounds and closes with a ‘Lullaby' presaging the coming of the night. The subtext underscoring this is not only the rhythm of each day, but the cycle within each human life.

The album was nominated for an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Award and has been widely synchronised to film and television programmes.

More recently Equa completed the soundtrack for the critically acclaimed film The Noon Gun, directed by Anthony Stern, which received its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) 2004.