Singer-Songwriter Jyoti Kavi and Violinist Peri Thyagaraju Craft Escapist Pop on ‘Sukoon’

By singer-songwriter Jyoti Kavi’s own admission, she’s an “experimentalist.” Her latest single “Sukoon,” featuring violinist Peri Thyagaraju, mixes Hindi and English but also melancholy rock and pop styles, tied together with distinct string melodies.

The song is the U.S.-based, Hyderabad-origin artist’s first release of the year, but there have been plenty more experiments ever since she began releasing music in 2020. From her Telugu debut song “Kalisi Gadipe” and “Prema Prema” (also in Telugu) and “Dagar Dagar” in Hindi, she even added a few French hooks on the Telugu song “Manohara” from 2021. Last year included more Indian classical-oriented songs like “Saaware Sun” and an upbeat Telugu song “Nee Valle,” among others.

“Sukoon,” for its part, was written in February this year. Kavi says, “I didn’t really set out to do something different; it just happened and the emotion flowed through.” Initially featuring mostly programmed instruments and arrangements, Kavi brought in Peri Thyagaraju, guitarist Chirag Samtani and bassist Benjamin Christopher to add the rock and fusion edge to “Sukoon.” She adds, “What a difference the violins make! I couldn’t imagine this song any other way.”

There are more songs on the way from Kavi, but she (understandably) won’t be able to pin a sonic direction to them just yet. “I have a couple of songs I’ve just started working on, but it’s hard to say much about them because I usually don’t know where my songs end up taking me,” she adds.

Listen to “Sukoon” below. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn.