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Hand of Thought

SANAYA ARDESHIR

Released 27 March 2026

Karigar Records

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A deeply personal, piano-centred work tracing matrilineal memory through composition and ensemble - intimate in tone, yet expansive in its sense of history and continuity.​

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With Hand of Thought, Sanaya Ardeshir presents her first full-length release under her own name, establishing a parallel practice to her work as Sandunes. Where that project foregrounds electronic production, this album is rooted in acoustic piano and traditional composition.

The writing is conceptually anchored in matrilineality, tracing kinship through the female line, specifically within Ardeshir’s Parsi heritage. rthe Referencing Zen teacher Kosho Uchiyama’s "Opening the Hand of Thought - Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice", the music draws on histories of migration, memory and inheritance - a trans-generational conduit carrying intuition, experience and unresolved histories.

The album unfolds as a sequence of composed piano pieces, with ensemble arrangements that extend its core voice.

From the opening (title) track measured piano phrases form the foundation of the narrative, with horns and subtle rhythm entering gradually, establishing a sense of space, rather than momentum. That balance continues in “Between Dreams”, where the interplay between piano and wind instruments introduces a more fluid, transitional feel.

Movement becomes more explicit on “Trains” and “Deccan Queen”. The latter, named after the historic Indian luxury railway line, incorporates percussion and tabla (from Sarathy Korwar), giving the piece a forward motion that contrasts with the stillness elsewhere. “Barefoot Steps” expands the rhythmic palette further, again drawing on percussion to create a tactile, physical presence, while “Spiral” and “Missing Links” return to a more introspective mode, like fragments or reflections within the larger narrative. By the time “Nora’s House” closes the album, the tone is resolute but quiet. The piano remains central, but now carries the accumulated weight of the preceding pieces, less solitary voice, more part of an ongoing continuum.

Throughout, the ensemble, including Shirish Malhotra (Flute, Alto Flute, Tenor Saxophone), Rhys Sebastian (Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone), Nathan Thomas (Electric Bass) and Neil Waters (trumpet) is used with restraint. Horn arrangements (by Waters) are precise and supportive, while bass and percussion provide structure without dominating.

Hand of Thought is not expansive in scale, but it is deliberate in construction, an album that treats composition as a means of continuity, linking personal history with shared, inherited experience.

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