Hear Gouri and Aksha’s Poignant New Single ‘I’ll See You’

The last time we caught up with Mumbai soul/pop singer-songwriter duo Gouri Ranjit and Aksha Kini aka Gouri and Aksha in 2019, they had just released their introspective debut single “Look Inside.” Since then, the pair have been writing and producing more material. Due to the lockdown last year, they both wound up in different cities and ended up having to work with the limitations that came with it. Ranjit says, “But before the lockdown hit, we had the opportunity to play our originals to a lot of people, and it gave us very specific ideas about how we wanted to produce and develop those songs. So the last one year was spent just implementing those ideas.”

With Kini stuck in Punjab for three months, she jumped at the first possible flight back to Mumbai to be reunited with her piano last year. She says, “It was my first experience of Bombay monsoons and I’d separated myself from people I love, to do what I had to do; make music.” That was the basis to the duo’s latest poignant song, “I’ll See You.”

The track opens with rainfall, which was recorded by Kini from her window. We then hear beautiful piano chords before the pair sings blissfully in harmony as delicate percussive brushes add to the vibe. “Gouri and I were very sure that we wanted to keep the production bare,” says Kini. Ranjit adds, “[I] never really programmed brushes before. So that was interesting for me. Can’t wait till we can perform it with an actual drummer though.”

The musicians recorded and produced the song at their own homes and mastered the track using audio streaming platform SoundCloud. Gouri and Aksha plan on releasing more music in the form of singles as well as an EP later this year. “We ended up writing a bunch of new songs due to the general absurdity of the year [2020] and the way it made us feel,” says Kini.

Stream “I’ll See You” on Spotify below and on other platforms.