Ankur Tewari’s New Album ‘Akela’ Takes the Ambient, Psychedelic Route

For someone who has often relied on the subtlety and power of acoustic guitars for the longest time, singer-songwriter Ankur Tewari surprises instantly on his new album Akela, with the opening track “Parwaana” greeting listeners with roomy drum work and echoey vocals to strike a sense of doom and gloom.

Written during the pandemic and produced by Rohan Ramanna (from Salvage Audio Collective), the album — Tewari’s first full-length indie song collection since 2017’s Side A/Side B — is released via Tiger Baby Records, which he co-founded with Bollywood directors Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti earlier this year. Tewari says in a statement, “It’s an investigation piece on relationships and dwelling on loneliness.”

While the title track continues the roomy pace of “Parwaana,” there’s spoken word on the ambient, cinematic “Iss Dil Ka Aisa Hi Hai” [co-produced by Visakhapatnam-origin Kalmi]. There’s a sign of familiar Tewari tunes on “Gunjaayish Hai” with its melancholy, the artist goes in a whole new direction on “Ik Dooje Ke Liye,” landing him in the breathy pop rock direction. The melodica and slide guitar wails on “Doobay” that back up Tewari’s signature breezy vocals, while “Hum (Reprise)” roams in a more ambient space. He backs up this sonic palette, saying he did want to create a more ambient environment. “Almost akin to the feeling of being lost in the cosmos,” he adds in a statement. 

The eight-and-a-half-minute closer “Sawaal” kind of picks up where the psychedelic opener “Parwaana” left off, digging into more labored spoken word storytelling as the production slowly pivots from dusty guitar work to build up the pace in an ominous manner. Arguably Tewari’s most experimental piece to date, “Sawaal” spirals into something straight out of a thriller or Western movie score, even as the artist’s Hindi lyrics add to the tension.

All in all, by his own admission, Tewari says he was shocked to zoom out and find just how different Akela is as a collection of songs compared to his previous work. It remains as personal and introspective as ever, though. He says in a statement, “I discovered a side of myself that I was hiding somewhere. It wasn’t like it didn’t exist before. It did but probably, I was forced to confront that side of my personality. I was probably not brave or bold enough to share it earlier but it gave me an opportunity to speak about that. This album brought me closer to who and how I am as a private person.”

Listen to ‘Akela’ below. Stream on more platforms here.