Tags: New Music
Zain Alam, the artist behind the music project Humeysha, released a new single, “You Always,” on Bandcamp Friday. All proceeds from the track will go to Bed-Stuy Strong and India Against Corona, to organizations responding to an unprecedented global crisis.
“You Always” landlessly moves across language and sound and evokes something so effectively unterritorialized, diasporic, and transnational in its production. The song plays with layered digital synths amidst the echo of hazy piano chords; the auditory revelation in the santoor accompanying the beat of drums and guitar, the woven sounds managing an unexpected familiarity next to each other.
Alam shared with Kajal that he began to write this song over two years ago, in a time in his life when he was experiencing a disjuncture between where he was and where he wanted to be. The structure of the song reflects the intuition of the piano chords that kept returning to him during this time, mirroring itself in the first and second halves of the song.
“I think that structure itself in some ways conveys the place that I was at two years ago when I was writing this song—back and forth, going in between, having these numerous way stations in my life that I felt in between,” he said.
Alam considers music as a process of healing — “a way to reconfigure connections where they don’t exist or it feels like there’s a lack.” In a time when the world is safer at a distance and connection is a luxury, “You Always” feels like the beginnings of healing.
“You Always” is streaming everywhere.