Six Flying Whales Releases Whimsical Alt-Folk Album ‘Return To Sea’

Turning away from beat-driven, mind-melting production, Bengaluru producer and multi-instrumentalist Mayur Nanda aka Six Flying Whales’ new album Return To Sea is an enchanting psychedelic, alternative folk listening experience, packing in 16 “miniature tunes.”

Nanda, who is also the drummer for avant-garde metal band Maneating Orchid and drummer/keyboardist for instrumental act Stuck In November, says Return To Sea demanded a change in sound. “I still love the odd synthy blip,” he adds. The artist calls this record “alive, comforting and satisfying.” The album sees Nanda take on bass, electric and acoustic guitar, plus pluck and strum the guitalele and ukulele. He’s also added accordion, melodica, harmonium, keys and percussion to craft a pleasant yet ever-changing wave of melodies that’s best enjoyed in one, 30-minute sitting.

He also credits working on the acoustic EP of Stuck In November as an experience that led him to get “attached to the specific world created.” Thematically, another major influence for Nanda was trying to showcase his understanding of psychedelia. “It isn’t all tie-die [sic] and endless reverse delay effects,” he says, pointing out eccentric-sounding British bands like Cardiacs, plus XTC and their project The Dukes of Stratosphear’s “joke-psychedelia album” 25 O’Clock from 1985. Nanda adds, “To me, psychedelia is an unspeakable indescribable feeling or myriad of feelings I get when I hear a particular sound or a movement or a texture. Or a place I’m taken to without any effort.”

Return To Sea is certainly transportive in that regard, coming across as part indie arcade game soundtrack and part Adventure Time theme music. Nanda’s Stuck In November bandmate Nihal Anand appears on “Echolocation,” providing vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar melodies, plus electric guitar on the pair of tracks “Big Blubber” and “Little Blubber.” Nanda adds, “While they’re still completely different things, I feel like Stuck in November, Six Flying Whales, and Nihal’s solo projects Deadstar and Fireghost all exist in the same disconnected universe with overlapping experiences and alluring places to go.”

Although Stuck In November officially played their “last show for the foreseeable future” in October 2019 before members dispersed, they are remotely recording a full-length album at the moment. There’s also a Maneating Orchid album coming up, presently being mixed. “I’ve started putting together a record for a different solo project […] We’re trying to have everything done before the end of the year,” Nanda says.

Listen to ‘Return To Sea’ below. Stream on more platforms here.