sudan Collaborates With Anoushka Maskey, Tejas & More On 4-Track Release 'pocket friendly: volume i'

After his debut album last year, Pritpal Sudan, who uses just his last name (stylised as "sudan") as an artist, has had a prosperous year ripe with acclaim, an India tour and performances at platforms like Lollapalooza. Therefore, unlike his previous releases, the Mumbai-based artist's latest EP 'pocket friendly: volume i' arrives to a sizeable listenership waiting on it.

While collaboration has been a recurring feature of sudan's previous work, it defines the new 4-track release, which features the voices and songwriting of Bangalore's Frizzell D'Souza, Sikkim's Anoushka Maskey and Mumbai's seasoned indie figure Tejas, besides instrumentalists like saxophonist Gautam David and pianist Nathan Thampy.

"Working on my debut album was an extremely solitary process. I'd spend most days in the studio alone for twelve hours at a time," says Sudan. "To balance things out this year, either as part of my own projects or in the capacity of a producer, I focused on collaborations with artists I've been wanting to work with forever. After which, I will very eagerly head back into my den to work on my next solo album.”

A producer and multi-instrumentalist who worked behind releases of other artists before coming into his own, sudan's latest work is shaped by the effort to strike a balance between the meaning of the songwriting and the energy, sonic vibrancy and clever production tricks that he decorates it with. Within that, the short opening ':)' grabs an easy win by choosing only one of the two things as an instrumental of emotive textures made through plucked guitar and echoes of saxophones melting into the surrounding pads.

Meanwhile, the closer 'a hiatus' is an example of when one fully overpowers the other as the progressive jazz rhythms executed over electronic timbres dominate with their rousing energy – no doubt a highlight during his live sets. The songwriting that was honed with Tejas takes a backseat in the final result, becoming just another texture to give more body to the ensemble and less relevant for its meaning, which is felt at best and doesn't ever get stated once past the stripped-back opening section.

'lighthouse' is the second best at striking that balance where everything except the chorus, where sudan's scotch-snap rhythms, the electronic arpeggios and Anoushka Maskey's melodic leaps create a mix of few ideas too many that negate each other's effect, offers the fun of electronic pop with an emotive R&B take on the changing rules of relationships with time.

The lead single 'ghost' featuring Frizzell D'Souza gets the balance in its best shape on the EP, which is intentionally crafted as a mixtape of experiments in variety rather than confining to cohesiveness across tracks. Placing the song about wanting a solitary moment to sit with haunting inner conflicts front and centre and supporting it with textures similar to ":)", every section of rich arrangement is a propulsion into the following gentleness with which the two performers express their minds.

Listen to 'pocket friendly: volume i' above and follow sudan for more.