Thanya Iyer is one of the artists who reached a new level of excellence in 2025. Her album Tide/Tied is a pure delight, a magnificent hybrid of Indian classical music, indie folk, ambient, ethereal wave, American minimalism, and chamber jazz. The Montreal-based artist effortlessly blended this fusion of cultures, whose elements defy categorization.
A singer of exquisite gentleness, a circumspect and sensitive lyricist, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist (violin, viola, keyboards, synthesizers, electronics), and a brilliant arranger, Thanya Iyer expresses impeccable taste here. Her perfectly balanced hybridizations make her melodies soar with microtonal inclinations and carry us away to the most beautiful spaces of her inner world.
Harp, strings, choir, keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass, reeds, brass… a new kind of chamber music! This rich instrumentation involves sophisticated arrangements and complex harmonies, presented in a diverse range of styles, creating chamber music that borders on intimate song. However, it’s difficult to call these works, meant to be savored slowly, simply songs. They contain rhymes, refrains, and bridges, but the bridges are much longer than in typical songs, and the composition regularly takes center stage, characterized by calm and great subtlety.
This is the signature of Thanya Iyer, an exceptional talent, a Montreal treasure that the whole world should contemplate.
