Premiere: New Delhi Electronica Artist Goya’s Murky Debut EP ‘Morii’

Endless hours at Kintsugi Studios is New Delhi-based producer and sound engineer Abhishek Sekhri’s main gig, but since 2018, he’s been finding an outlet for his own music under the moniker Goya. The twisted, often cinematic style of electronic music is Sekhri’s way of becoming a storyteller.

He says in a statement, “Although music is an auditory form of expression, for me it is very visual. I can almost always visualize a story, a photo or a scene in my mind when I am creating music.” His debut EP Morii takes its name from “the desire to capture a fleeting moment/experience” and features songs like “Mad Scientist,” which dips into decaying and swelling synth, buoyed by sinister sound design and ambient elements.

Artwork for Goya’s new EP ‘Morii.’ Photo: Bhumanyu Nehra

Sekhri says that song started out as a score a picture he clicked of a seemingly deserted building in New Delhi in 2019. “It had a very industrial look to it. What intrigued me was that there was light coming out of just one window in the entire building, and I fantasized of a story in my head of how a ‘scientist’ might be leading to an invention inside that room,” he says. The four-track EP also includes “In the Beginning,” which samples sounds generated at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, which started out in 1957.

The more dancefloor-oriented warped synth sound of “Release” wanders into friendlier sonic territory on the EP, which Sekhri credits to the EP artwork shot by photographer Bhumanyu Nehra in Uttarakhand. The ominous closer “Nature’s Way” surprisingly builds up only to let in samples of bird sounds. Sekhri says, “This song has a rhythm that sounds like a construction is on while there are pleasant nature sounds in the background. It speaks of the balance between nature and man-made things on the planet and how it gets disrupted, but in the end nature always has a way above everything.”

Produced, mixed and mastered entirely at Sekhri’s Kintsugi studios, the producer is plotting a music video for “Mad Scientist” up next.

Stream ‘Morii’ below. Listen to the EP on more platforms here.