top of page

ESHAAN SOOD & THE SONIC ALCHEMISTS, Dream River

  • Writer: Jonathan Widran
    Jonathan Widran
  • 3 days ago
  • 2 min read

As New Delhi born and raised, Brooklyn based guitarist Eshaan Sood takes our attentive and excited ears through what he calls “a journey through the beautiful and not so beautiful moments in life” with his quintet The Sonic Alchemists, it’s imperative that we express gratitude that the band’s stellar, thematically rich and stylistically eclectic debut Dream River exists at all.


ree

As he ventures from the plucky, feisty folkloric fusion of his very first jazz composition “Mountain Muse” through the hypnotic, meditative dreamscape “Sailing Through the Dream River” a premiere showcase for his melodic and improvisational guitar wizardry, the tragic debiliating accident in India that changed the course of his life is probably not foremost on his mind. But as listeners engage in his multi-hued, impressionistic collection, they might find the story inspirational.


On a long drive to a country-wide festival in 2015, his Hyundai Eon crashed into the rear of a tractor trailer, resulting in catastrophic injuries, a week on life support, severe facial trauma and blindness. With his budding career as a graphic artist no longer an option, when he began recovering, he opened up to the possibility of professionally pursuing his lifelong passion for music, which began with him playing table, piano, drums and bass before he discovered his best expression on guitar. He discovered a love for jazz while attending the Global Music Institute, and upon graduating in 2019, continued his education at the Eastman School at the University of Rochester. Starting his education there post lockdown, he found a community of likeminded musicians and benefited from school’s Office of Disability Resources.


Listeners need not know all that to appreciate the ebbs and flow of Dream River, but his life is a testament to the healing power of music and thus it’s important to share. Six years in the making, Dream River offers very personal musical glimpses into his life experiences and mindset as a musician thriving in the U.S. These include the locomotive coolness and lyrical charm of “Glass Blown Acquaintances” (his interpretation of a fascinating conversation he once had with a passenger), the haunting and elegant “Miss Lightning” (a reflection on the passing of his beloved dog), a “Plea for Forgiveness” that is alternately sweetly tender and emphatically explosive, and the jamming, high energy and playfully thumping “Here For a Good Time,” which finds him inventively setting Coltrane changes to infectious dance grooves.

 
 
 

Comments


bottom of page