Sinkane is back with a new single called “Dépaysé”, and this time he is ready to look inward at his family history through song. The title track comes from his seventh studio album, Dépaysé, which drops May 31st via City Slang.
According to Ahmed Gallab, the artist behind the moniker, the song came to him in a dream. He was walking through Omdurman, Sudan — his native homeland as the child of Sudanese parents, although technically he was born in London and raised in the US — when he overheard his father playing guitar and singing in Arabic. He was sitting across from his childhood home. His father repeated a series of lyrics: “I am your life/And all of our lives/From within the city until our uprising/Our days have left us in the city and, with our imagination, we move forward.” Naturally, Gallab took it as a sign.
(Watch: Sinkane’s Live Performance at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall)
So it makes sense that “Dépaysé” centers around those words in its own lyrics. The song combines elements of traditional Sudanese folk music with psych rock, long electric guitar solos, and heartfelt harmonies. It’s a beautiful, enchanting listen that sits comfortably behind “Everybody”, the previous single from Dépaysé. The song also comes with a trippy visual by Mad Alchemy Liquid Show. Check it out below.
“‘Dépaysé’ is a French word that basically means ‘to be removed from one’s habitual surroundings’,” Gallab said in a press release. “By extension, it means to be disoriented, homeless. That’s a feeling I relate to very much in these times — and I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way. That word gave me clarity and made my journey of self discovery that much more exciting.”
Sinkane recently announced a string of tour dates that will bring him across the US and Europe throughout the month of June. Get tickets to the shows here. You can also buy past Sinkane releases on vinyl here.