Shout out to the plants. That is essentially what this new EP from Turin-based producer and composer Sara Berts is about. Titled Ayni, this immersive, five-track project uses field recordings and dense electronic sounds to make it feel like you are either deep in a jungle or out in a wide open plain.
She uses field recordings from the Peruvian Amazon forest, where she spent some months in 2017 and 2019 while seeking personal healing. All of the other electronic sounds come from the Buchla Easel that were recorded in Italy during lockdown. The title means sacred reciprocity in Quechua, "a principle by which if you give you will receive and if you receive you must give back," according to Berts.
The project has a feeling of suspended time. Songs ease from one to the next as the Buchla flows over itself like water cascading down a waterfall. Ayni is bright and somewhat hopeful that nature can always provide beauty around us, even when things seem dark and gloomy otherwise.
Listen to the full project now and get your copy here.
