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We make sense of our lives in hindsight, weaving together a narrative that often feels invisible in the rush of daily tasks and fleeting moments. Our days are a blur of chores, deadlines, and living in the immediacy of now, with little time to pause and reflect. Yet, the larger story of our lives, the one we tell ourselves and others, emerges not from the present but from the moments we drift into the past or project ourselves into the future. It’s in these spaces of rumination, where we revisit choices, replay conversations, or imagine what’s yet to come, that we give meaning to our existence.
On his latest EP Temporal Drift, Delhi-based electronica artist SYEYL explores this day-dreamy space between memory and imagination. "It’s about the mind drifting to past memories or the future and an inability to stay in the present. While my last album was about grounding myself in the now, this EP is an assurance that it’s okay to ‘drift’ as long as you allow yourself to feel something", he explains.
Ecstasy, the opening track captures the heady rush of falling in love for the first time. A sitar loop sampled from a 1950s Indian record forms the track’s spine, layered with lush synthesizer chords and a haunting vocal sample scavenged from YouTube. It’s a hypnotic swirl of nostalgia and euphoria, setting the tone for the emotional odyssey ahead. Ascent unfolds like a dream of floating among clouds. Built around Maasai tribal chants from Kenya, the track layers an Oberheim-inspired synth arpeggio with the unmistakable thump of 808 drums and the electric energy of the Pulsar 23. The result is both grounding and transcendent; a perfect metaphor for reaching new heights while staying connected to the earth.
Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s poignant fig tree metaphor from The Bell Jar, Ficus delves into the paralysis of indecision and the eventual leap of faith. A narration from Plath’s work introduces the piece, which evolves into an uplifting swirl of arpeggiated sequences, melodic loops, and driving breakbeats. For SYEYL, it’s a sonic representation of trusting the unknown. A track that explores subconscious truths and self-discovery, Electric Dreams takes a bold structural turn midway, slowing its tempo dramatically before dissolving into a soundscape of pure, disorienting emptiness. It’s a daring composition that mirrors the fragmented nature of personal epiphanies.
Much like the ocean-polished shards it’s named after, Seaglass is about transformation and authenticity. Euphoric textures, a sampled sitar, and layered percussion—from 808s to Pulsar 23 textures—create a track that feels weathered yet beautiful. The ambient experiments of 1970s Japanese composers reimagined for Rave in the Forest. This track builds from a synth line and ethereal vocal samples into a pulse-pounding blend of drums, bass, and filtered synths. It’s an exhilarating trip through nature and memory, leaving listeners suspended in a haze of euphoria. Closing the EP is Ego Death, a deeply introspective piece reflecting on endings and new beginnings. With a sense of bittersweet nostalgia, the track confronts what might have been while embracing the beauty of what is. Its layered rhythms and sweeping melodies offer both closure and a sense of infinite possibility — a fitting end to a deeply reflective journey.
At its heart, Temporal Drift is a study in contrasts: the push and pull between the organic and the synthetic, the past and the present, and the known and the unknown. Using sampling as his core technique, SYEYL recontextualizes sounds from across the world, merging them with synthesized textures and intricate drum patterns. The 808s and breakbeats give the EP its rhythmic backbone, while the experimental Pulsar 23 injects an electric unpredictability. A meditation on time, memory, and the human condition, With Temporal Drift, the artist offers listeners a chance to drift, reflect, and, perhaps, find a piece of themselves within its soundscapes.
Follow SYEYL here and listen to the EP below.
