Nuka (Anushka Manchanda) recently released her latest independent audiovisual experience with Kashmir. The bilingual track (English and Urdu) produced and conceptualised by Nuka features the gifted Kashmiri artists Khalid Ahamed (lead singer of the band Parvaaz), and 20-year-old, award-winning Rabab player Sufiyan Malik.
Through her alias Nuka, Anushka explores the intersections of nature and humanity. She opens a precarious and yet exquisite line of communication between them in her new song Kashmir. Born out of an overwhelming realisation of the beauty of the valley, this track is a love letter in the form of a tribute to Kashmir.
This piece has endured a process prolonging five years, with Anushka’s multiple visits to Kashmir, starting in 2015 for the wedding of her dear friends, to returning to Kashmir in the following 2 years to shoot during Chillai-Kalaan, the coldest time of the year. Kashmir is a time capsule of memory and love, in which Nuka sings intensely about the wreckage of nature, reclaiming beauty and its transformation in our perception.
Says Nuka “Kashmir feels like the spirit of Mother Nature, the Earth in her most heartbreakingly beautiful form. I cannot describe in words how I felt in her lap, and it took me years to create a piece that could express my love for the valley. I am an outsider, yet I wept when I was leaving Kashmir. To me, it felt like home”.
Says Khalid Ahamed “The musicality and theme in this track had me hooked to it from my first conversation with Anushka. I am excited and humbled to be a part of it”.
Kashmir by Nuka will be available in Dolby Atmos, a new way to connect with music at its fullest capacity and creative potential, making Nuka one of the first independent artists in India to create music in Dolby Atmos. The Kashmir mix in Dolby Atmos will allow fans to discover hidden details and subtleties in the sound with unparalleled clarity, so they can experience the instruments and vocals in isolation with more space and incredible fidelity.
For her first ever virtual performance as Nuka, she presents Shed my Skin on 3rd December 2020, a 30 minute multi-medium performance on global platform DiceFM, a space where her creative and technical skills come together to create a seamless capsule of music, performance, dance and film, inviting her audience into her world. The show will present unreleased material from the artist-producer and will feature special guests: rapper Kaam Bhaari, drummer Gautam Deb, Utkarsh Dhotekar on keys, and her latest collaborator Khalid Ahamed.
Here is the link to Shed my Skin:
Here is the link to the music video of Kashmir: