Singer-songwriter Aditi Ramesh is no stranger to experimentation. The Carnatic-Jazz singer shot to fame with her peculiar amalgamation of carnatic vocals over jazz melodies and structures. With a string of EPs and singles already released, Aditi is back with an experimental track called Sambar Soul, a tribute to the genre she is helping define and propel.
The song which has been produced by Melbourne based producer Mohit Rao, actually takes it’s name from a chance comment that Aditi read on her social media. “The name (Sambar Soul) is inspired by a comment on a livestream gig I did in April where someone wrote this and I was like YES that should be my answer when someone asks me my genre because it describes the feel but also doesn’t really mean anything. Our styles and genres are not set in stone and I think all artists should be able to explore and experiment freely without people saying ‘this isn’t you’” says Aditi.
A song that is quintessentially an Aditi Ramesh composition, Sambar Soul isn’t themed on anything in particular but captures the vibe of the artist perfectly. A chorus that goes “This song is in the key of Sambar Soul”, the track finds its compositional roots in neo-jazz structures and Aditi’s multi-vocal layering adds a amusing wholesomeness to it. Commenting on the need to categorize each and every song into a genre, Aditi says “I find myself without a real answer when l’m asked what my musical genre is, yet people always want to know. Which made me think: we’ve become obsessed with labels, genres, adjectives and classification as a society; we don’t understand things in the absence of these. We’ve become afraid of having original thoughts, moulding our actions on societal notions of success, beauty and happiness. We don’t need to conform to these definitions or the definitions of ourselves created by others. We should do what makes us happy and not worry about anything else.”
