A classical transformation

Electronic producer Anish Sood opens up about Anyasa, his new avatar that incorporates Indian classical sounds

It was around two months after the first lockdown last year. Anish Sood, an electronic music producer born and brought up in Goa —   who back then went by the same artiste name —   opened up his system at home in the sunshine state. He then proceeded to delete all the files in it with synth compositions he’d been storing till then. It might seem like a dramatic move for a musician to make. But for Sood, that moment had been building up for about three years. Subconsciously, he’d been laying the ground for Anyasa, his new musical moniker, one that blossomed during the pandemic. Sood became Anyasa; Anish Sood, the artiste name, became a closed chapter.

Anyasa sees Sood incorporating Indian classical music elements into his repertoire for the first time. He is grounded in house and techno music as a synthesizer-composer. But last year, while producing a track called Jigyasa that Indo-US indie act Anhad and Tanner was making, it struck a chord. Sood heard Isheeta Chakrvarty sing Indian classical vocals on what was otherwise a wholly western track, and realised that he could take a leaf out of that book. Subconsciously, he’d been looking for a change from ‘Anish Sood’. The new label he had signed to, Anjunadeep, also gave him a nudge in the same direction and Jigyasa acted as a catalyst, Anyasa tells us.