Sandunes ft: Ramya Pothuri - The Surge (Single)
“The Surge feat. Ramya Pothuri” is the first single from Sandunes aka Sanaya Ardeshir, a composer, producer and pianist from Mumbai, India, on her new label Tru Thoughts. On the track, Sanaya and Ramya Pothuri channel the bittersweet unease of migration, with a balance of turbulent synths and syncopated tranquillity. The release, taken from her upcoming, transcendental album, 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet' [Out Friday 17th November], aligns with her relocation to LA in pursuit of a new chapter in life and music.
Sanaya has opened for Bonobo at the Manchester International Festival, supported George FitzGerald's album release tour at Evolutionary Arts Hackney, performed at London’s Barbican Centre under commission from Warp Records and Boiler Room, toured the US supporting Pretty Lights and released a collaborative album with celebrated UK jazz drummer Richard Spaven. As well as joining NTS for a guest mix, her previous work has gained praise from international and local tastemakers across various media; Rolling Stone, The Quietus, The Guardian, Red Bull Radio and Resident Advisor to name a few.
The enchanting displaced vocal arrangement of “The Surge” expresses the flurry of emotions surrounding a big change, like leaving the comfort of Goa’s beautiful, familiar red soil. Breaking the conformities of traditional arrangement, the track gambols with a life of its own. Lyrically, the track describes the sensation of vines sprawling and knotting in someone’s mind, “like a bad dream”, causing the colour to drain from someone’s skin. The intensity of the instrumentation is a testament of trying times, produced in a one-week window of isolation together after being exposed to Covid during the spread of Covid’s second wave through India, “I remember it being a scary time” Sanaya adds. Ramya and Sanaya recount making “The Surge” as “a little slice of paradise” while they stayed at a homestay that also functioned as a make-shift animal shelter. A blue-eyed cat that they crossed paths with during their layover inspired some of the enigmatic lyrics, that float between the playful woodwind notes, strings and fluttering synthesiser tones.