Sanaya Ardeshir (she/her) is an Indian producer and composer, with a parallel practice in electronic music under the moniker – Sandunes. Like her naturally occurring namesake, her world of sound is in constant evolution-ranging from experimental piano music, acoustic-electronic dance music, to experiments in pop, field recordings and synthesis. Her performances reveal an appetite for integrating the worlds of studio and stage. She has been described as “one of India’s leading electronic music artists” (Resident Advisor), and her work has garnered praise from international and local tastemakers across various media including Rolling Stone, The Quietus, The Guardian, The Wire, and the BBC World Service.
Hi, my name is Sanaya Ardeshir – I am a producer / composer, and the music that I’ve shared today is a collection of very inspiring works that have invoked pivots within me – both in terms of a listener, so things that have blown open a completely new field of work to immerse myself in, but also as an artist –these are some selections that have really stayed with me, and had a distinct impact on the world of sound that I was reaching for at the time. I hope you enjoy exploring all of this, and that you get to know some of these artists and some of this music as well as I do, thanks.
Flowers of Evil by Suzanne Ciani
Suzanne’s music has stayed with me for very long, and I find myself coming back to different chapters of her work from different times again and again. The sparseness of her ideas coupled with the spectral fullness of her instruments always makes for something very poignant and soothing. There is something inherently ’round’ or circular about her approach that I feel like I’m often reaching for when I’m writing music.
For – Peter – Toilet Brushes – More by Nils Frahm
The live performance of this piece of music, might be one of my favourite live performances to watch, I truly never tire of this. There is something so rebellious about using toilet brushes in a concert hall while still evoking the most beautiful, syncopated, almost-falling-out-of-time phrases that hold rapt attention. The whole thing is so stream of consciousness, there’s something very embodied and raw about how the music finds itself and how it bends time.
Occasionally Touching Earth by Dimlite
There is something very nostalgia-evoking for me here. I had an opportunity to watch a Dimlite performance in 2012 and it was an incredible mix of live-electronic-percussion-sampled-free flow, almost jazz adjacent – something that stayed with me for very long. The whole album is so free feeling and so meticulous at the same time.
Sketch On Glass by Mount Kimbie
This is one of my most beloved pieces of electronic music. While I was a student, living in London and studying music production – I would listen to this EP so many times, especially during my commutes. The deliberate imperfection, use of voice/samples, the negative space, the overall feeling of place and space – this was something I really dug back then and still consider very timeless.
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat by Charles Mingus
I think the knowledge that Mingus wrote this after hearing that Lester Young had died – infused some kind of dualistic magic into the piece for me. The way that music can ‘solve’ grief momentarily, by reminding us of ways to hold pain and beauty in the same breath. I think this piece encapsulates that feeling in a way that lets that emotional quality hang – unresolved. I love the whole record.
Space 8 by Nala Sinephro
I adore this whole record and the way it feels orchestral, electronic, cinematic, cosmic, and psychedelic – yet at the same time it’s far from eclectic – the feeling it conveys is so cohesive and cogent – like she knew what she was trying to communicate from the very beginning. And yet it all feels emergent, there is something about the singular voice (a synth) towards 5:30 minutes that reveals itself to be the flame that captures your attention and carries it beautifully across the piece before dissolving into literal spaciousness.
Bringer of Peace by Gustav Holst, Performed by Susanna Mälkki and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
I wish I had found this piece of music earlier in my life – when I did discover it, I remember thinking – “how could that have been written in 1914?” It was so very ahead of it’s time, and it holds such a timeless feeling to it. I love the textures and how there is a circular feeling to the way the motifs keep reappearing in different forms.
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