Bay Area-based singer-songwriter, Sasha Bayan is out with a brand new must-hear single to tease his upcoming LP. “montreux” launches the listener into a dream pop soundscape with it’s soothing vocal delivery and ambient instrumentation. Pianos, strings, and light percussion fill additional space in the song, creating a dreamy environment where listeners can fall in love with the sounds of Sasha Bayan. The lyrics of the song dive into concepts of love and longing, romance and separation, the bliss of falling in love, into the heartbreak with completion of the relationship. The song is a reflection of both glorious moments of the relationship and the end of the relationship. Bayan sings his memories, recounting a magical “kiss in the sky” and other romantic adventures in Montreux, Switzerland, where snow creates a winter wonderland. He sings of regrets and loss, the relationship falling apart with many tears and rough moments, until the love has burned out. Part of the love will always be kept alive through the song.
The song tells the story of a specific time and place in my life. The details in the lyrics are sparse, but to me they are like a photograph from my memories. When I first shared the song with some friends, they found it harder to relate to than others from the album. I accept that. The song feels like my own secret store of memories, one that only I and the person I sing to would fully understand. The claps at the end of the track was the last thing we recorded at the studio, and I will cherish that memory of standing together smiling with my friends at 1am after two full days of recording, adding this final touch to my favorite track on the album.
Grief from a lost relationship is the inspiration for the album, where each song tells a piece of the story. “montreux” tells the story of the beginning of the end of that relationship.
– Sasha Bayan
The full record is slated for an early 2024 release and will have similar alluring sounds. On the creation of the record, Sasha Bayan says: “The record took about 2 years from start to the finished product. It began with me waking up at 4am to play 3 chords and a melody stuck in my head. It then took me from writing and recording drafts at home to flying out to Chicago to record with Sam Suggs and Gustavo Cortiñas at Electrical Audio and back home to consolidate tons of material and work remotely with my mixing engineer Javier Valdeavellano. The whole process was a non-linear journey with so many challenges, learning, and friends along the way.”
For Fans of: Death Cab For Cutie, Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird
While you wait for the full LP to drop, listen to this amazing song on Spotify now:
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Written by Ryan Cassata
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