MUSIC & FILM ARCHIVE

Songs, performances and recordings from across the years

An evolving archive of original music, songs, vocal recordings, live performances, films, documentaries and creative collaborations from across the years. Some pieces were professionally produced, while others are simple recordings, experiments or surviving fragments from different chapters of my creative life.

The quality naturally varies with the years, the technology and the circumstances. Sometimes I was working with professional cameras, sound equipment and editing software; at other times, something unfolded in front of me and I simply grabbed whatever was available — an early phone, a small camera, or later, the extraordinary quality of a 4K iPhone. Recordings made through different platforms and software also carry the character and limitations of the technology available at the time.

I have chosen to preserve these pieces as they are rather than judge them by today’s technical standards. Sometimes capturing the moment, the performance, the person or the story mattered far more than the equipment in my hands.

Together, they preserve a body of work that might otherwise have been lost to time — the music I made, the stories I filmed, the people I collaborated with, and the many experiences that shaped my journey as a singer, songwriter, filmmaker and storyteller.

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Original Music

Original songs, collaborations and musical projects created across the years — from personal storytelling to music inspired by humanitarian and environmental causes.

Coloured Wings

An Original Album

Preview the album and explore available listening and purchase options.

A Note From the Archive
Coloured Wings was created independently in 1998. I struggled to find a pathway for its distribution at the time, but that has never diminished what the album means to me. Decades later, I remain enormously proud of it. When I listen now, I hear more than the songs. I hear a woman beginning to find her voice.

Coloured Wings grew out of one of the most emotionally significant periods of my life. After my father died, feelings and memories I had kept contained for many years began finding their way to the surface. So did the music. I knew that the songs I had carried quietly inside me could no longer stay there.

I received a small amount of money after my father’s death and chose to invest part of it in creating this album. I had no formal background in record production and with little musical training (just two years of Piano lessons). I Had my guitar, a keyboard, some songs I had written, and an absolute determination to bring them to life. Over the next six months, I learned how to build an album from the ground up — working with musicians, arranging songs, recording, making creative decisions and discovering an entirely new world as I went.

It was one of the happiest and most creatively alive periods of my life. Making Coloured Wings gave expression to things I had never known how to say. In many ways, the album became part of working through the pain of my childhood and discovering a creative voice that had been waiting for permission to exist.

My daughter was three years old at the time, and her little laugh can even be heard on one of the tracks — a tiny piece of family history preserved forever inside the music.

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Spirit (from, Coloured Wings)

An original song from Coloured Wings – Spirit. Special thanks to Luigi Capizzi for creating the beautiful Video.

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CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

WRITTEN AND RECORDED IN AUSTRALIA · FIRST SHARED PUBLICLY IN 2026
Words & Music by Jaya Khoobsurat

WRITTEN AND RECORDED IN AUSTRALIA · FIRST SHARED PUBLICLY IN 2026 ~ WORDS & MUSIC BY JAYA KHOOBSURAT

For reasons I can no longer precisely reconstruct (other than the stresses of life were considerable), this professionally recorded song was never released. At the time, I had hoped the song might develop further and eventually be released, but life — and the practical realities of producing and releasing independent music — took me in other directions. The recording remained with me, unheard, apart from a small circle of people, while the years quietly passed. I could have gone back and tried to remake it now, but I don’t think I want to. This recording belongs to the woman I was when I wrote it.

At its heart, Children of the World came from a deeply personal place. It was partly my own attempt to heal the pain of the child I had once been, while reaching outward to other children carrying pain of their own. Some of those children are still children. Others are adults now, carrying the child they once were somewhere inside them.

The song is not a bright or exuberant piece of music. There is a heaviness and repetition within it that reflects something of the emotional place from which it came. Looking back, I think that is part of its truth.

For nearly twenty years it sat quietly in my collection. In August 2026, I decided that being heard mattered more than remaining unfinished or waiting for some imagined moment when it might become perfect. So I am sharing the original recording here, much as it was created all those years ago.

For the children of the world — past and present — and for the child who still lives somewhere inside each of us.

© 2026 Jaya Khoobsurat. All rights reserved.

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Songs for Whale Conservation

Two recordings from an important chapter of my musical archive

These two whale-conservation songs come from a long period of musical collaboration and live performance. They remain part of my creative history and are preserved here to acknowledge the lyrics, voice, commitment and care I contributed to them.

A Note From the Archive
These recordings come from a complicated and ultimately painful chapter of my musical life. Over many years, I contributed my voice, time, energy and creative work to a collaboration in which I had no professional representation and no written agreements protecting my interests. I performed this material live many times and gave the work everything I had.

Looking back, I understand how vulnerable an independent artist can be when trust and goodwill take the place of clear contracts, credits, compensation arrangements and professional boundaries. The eventual breakdown of that working relationship profoundly affected my confidence as a singer. I stopped singing for several years — not because my voice had disappeared, but because my belief in it had.

I preserve Angels of the Sea and Is That a Whale Talkin’? here because I will not erase my own contribution simply because the circumstances surrounding that period became painful. These recordings remain part of my creative history, and so does the voice heard on them. I acknowledge that work here with pride, while also acknowledging the lessons I learned about protecting creative work, establishing professional boundaries and knowing the value of one’s contribution.

Select an artwork to hear the archival recording.

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SOLACE TASALI

A Collaborative Humanitarian Music Project

Solace Tasali was created and performed collaboratively by five musicians as a fundraising project for people affected by a bomb blast. Bringing together music, compassion and a shared desire to help, the song became one of the humanitarian projects within my creative journey.

A note from the archive
Solace Tasali was an ambitious project created by five musicians working remotely from different parts of the world. At the time, I was living in the United States and recorded my vocals in the most makeshift of circumstances — in a tiny, crowded bedroom, learning the Urdu lyrics phonically so I could sing words from a language I did not speak. The project came with more than its share of logistical and personal challenges, and the finished recording reflects the limitations of how and where it was made. But we finished it. We created something together, with genuine compassion behind it, and raised a modest amount for the people we hoped to help. I keep it here not because it is a perfect recording, but because it represents determination, collaboration and a piece of my creative history that I am still proud to have completed.

Listen to the Recording

English & Urdu Lyrics
View the English & Urdu Lyrics (PDF)

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Cover Songs & Informal Recordings

Recorded informally over the years, these performances capture songs I simply loved to sing. They were not studio productions — just moments of music, recorded for the pleasure of singing and shared with appreciation for the original songwriters and artists.

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