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Jul 25, 2019 By Stephen Axeman Humeysha

Brooklyn-based Hindi dream-pop project Humeysha, led by Zain Alam, have released their newest single, “Beauty in All,” from their forthcoming EP, Nusrat on the Beach, due out August 2. We are pleased to premiere it. The track is the second single to be released on the EP, following the release of the title track in June. “Beauty in All” is a chill-wave raga that meditates on the nature of our attractions, alternating between Urdu and English, while finding some shared substrate that links the two. The recording features field recordings of conversations he had with fellow Muslims about sexuality and religion that find their way into the bridge and outro of the track. The single also marks his first collaboration with Jorge Elbrecht who did mixing on the track. Check out the track below.

On the making of the track, Humeysha had this to say in a statement to Under the Radar: “‘Beauty in All’ is one of the first songs I wrote when I moved away for grad school a few years ago. In my music I’ve always tried to go beyond just documenting where I’m at and find ways of belonging unexpected for the places, people, and feelings in and around me. Whereas on the first record I played with oral histories and familial memories, I turn the lens on myself in Beauty in All, re-sampling myself and using field recordings of late night conversations in Cambridge about the future of love. Not much of a surprise to write about energies journeying across space (and time) to find one another-and how attraction can overcome boundaries of distance or language or category-right after I found myself feeling alone just after a move!”

Alam is currently the artist-in-residence at the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) for their Revolution Remix project where he is composing soundtracks for neighborhoods with long immigrant histories in Philadelphia.

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