Rachika Nayar

Rachika Nayar’s transformative guitar-based compositions are informed by wistful Midwest emo and uplifting trance anthems as well as sweeping cinematic epics. While the Brooklyn-based artist’s full-length debut, 2021′s Our Hands Against the Dusk, is a set of glitchy electro-acoustic deconstructions, 2022′s Heaven Come Crashing consists of grand, maximalist pieces drawing from dream pop, jungle, and anime soundtracks.
First known as Rachika S, the artist released Themes for a Film, written for a rescoring of the cult anime film Tekkon Kinkreet, in 2018. She also scored and starred in So Pretty, a 2019 film about four queer and transgender youth struggling to maintain a pro-utopian community in New York City. Her first album as Rachika Nayar, Our Hands Against the Dusk, was released by NNA Tapes in March 2021. On this album, she digitally processed her guitar until its vivid, shimmering textures barely resembled the source instrument. A much rawer companion EP, fragments, was issued by RVNG Intl.’s Commend sublabel. Nayar’s second NNA Tapes full-length, Heaven Come Crashing, appeared in 2022, exploring a much more widescreen sound influenced by dance music at its most ecstatic and atmospheric. ~ Paul Simpson