Sandunes reveals ‘ The Ground Beneath Her Feet’

Sandunes’s has released her third, transcendental album, ‘The Ground Beneath Her Feet’.

The album was announced with the single “The Surge feat. Ramya Pothuri”, on which Sandunes and Ramya Pothuri channel the bittersweet unease of migration, with a balance of turbulent synths and syncopated tranquillity. 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” Sandunes adds. Ramya and Sandunes 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.

“The Surge” was followed by the singles “Pelican Dance”, in which Sandunes transports the listener with her symphonic retrospectives, combining Baroque harpsichord, skipping marimba and skittering synth bursts. The epic, classical quality is contrasted by Sandunes’ signature contemporary electronica; and ”Feel Me From The Inside” which was accompanied by a live video of Sandunes performing with fellow instrumentalists, showing her captivating musical process in real-time. Her unforgettable live renditions are sometimes performed with anything from a solo show up to an eleven-piece band. You can check that video on Sandunes’ YouTube channel HERE

The 13 track ‘The Ground Beneath Her Feet’ challenges the celebration and reward for individualism, instead homing in on humanity’s “collective spirit, authentic expression… subverting the norm of what’s expected”, serving as a reminder to do more of that which connects the earth and the body. The album shares its name with a Salman Rushdie novel and the book’s humanist message that arrives from newfound awareness. It speaks to the sentimental foundations involved in making a home – when a tangible version of it doesn’t exist, “finding home in relationships, in ritual, in music and memory”.

Sandunes shared these insights about ‘The Ground Beneath Her Feet’ through her album announcement on social media:
“It came to life as an embodiment of the idea that we are a product of the very things that hold us up – a result of the collective. Receiving our literal support to stand tall from shared knowledge, from trust imparted onto us, from kindness. And from unfathomable generosity.

The ground beneath our feet – is shared, and it’s fragile.
The name also came from reconciling with the fragility of our planet, it’s immaculately balanced eco systems, slowly disappearing soundscapes or bird call, and the seemingly deranged rate of development that continues in light of how ubiquitous all this information now is.
Although this thought line can often get bleak – it’s a reminder to look to the earth, in a tangible and integrated way – and to do more of that which connects the earth and the body.”