Exclusive Premiere: Burudu’s Evocative New Video ‘Still Laying Here’

When New Delhi/Mumbai electronic/downtempo duo Burudu’s Nakul Sharma and Sahil Bhatia played at the Ziro Festival of Music in Arunachal Pradesh in September, they made a new friend in filmmaker Haider Hussain Beig.

Sharma recalls his first impression of the man behind their new music video “Still Laying Here,” who was also Bhatia’s friend from New Delhi. “I saw Sahil talking to somebody who looked white and Sahil was talking to him in a Noida accent.” Burudu, who have been making music in 2013, connected with Hussain quick enough to commission him to make the video to the lead single off their full-length album Ditties, which released in November.

The song, which features soul-searching, intensely reflective spoken-word poetry in Creole from Mauritian Daniella Bastien, is set to interpretive dance in Rotterdam, performed by actor-dancer Marjan Boersma. Bhatia adds, “This song has an emotional character and once that extra dimension of video is added to it, they can complement each other quite well.”

Burudu’s connection to Mauritius and Creole comes from Sharma’s roots in the island nation, where his mother is from. He says, “That’s when I picked up music and started using the computer as an instrument for the first time.” Their previous music video, “Zardin Zetwal,” which released in June this year, features Mauritian rapper Myckee. Songs on Ditties feature Haitian Creole poet Greg Vilmont (“Ghosts”), German poet Franziska Ge (“Light Up the Room”), Hindustani vocalist Sukanya Chattopadhyay (“Indriya”) and New Delhi-based guitarist-producer Vaibhav Bhutani (part of post-rock act Ioish) on “Lunar Dreams.”

The duo called on Chattopadhyay and Bhutani to perform at their Ditties launch in Mumbai last month, which Bhatia recalls as an “overwhelming” show. He adds, “Now that’s happened, we’re going to collaborate even more (at shows). It’s what makes the experience more captivating.”

Watch the video for “Still Laying Here” ft. Daniella Bastien