Dunes

On sand dunes

I find sand dunes both beautiful and strange because they remind me of us. They form these massive communities that are shaped by invisible forces over huge spans of time, interacting with each other, moving and eroding almost imperceptibly. Each dune is different, even within the same dune system.

When you zoom out and look at how differently the abstract framework of a dune manifests across the globe — how the simple process of wind moving sand can create such varied and dynamic landscapes — the comparison becomes striking. Sand dunes make me think about context, about how we are permanently — or temporarily — shaped by forces so much bigger than ourselves, and how so much of that happens without our conscious awareness.

The one thing sand dunes don’t have, but we do, is the ability to recognize this and adapt to it. I suppose this is what Dunes is all about. Agency.

And, of course, some forces are too invisible and too large to be reckoned with. But I think we can and should always try to understand, as much as possible, the winds that shape our own sands.

On the music

Dunes combines musical elements from contemporary classical music, pop music, and electronic dance music; all three of these styles have been extremely influential to me as a composer. I began writing music at age 11 by producing dubstep and house music. The top two songs on my Spotify in 2024 and 2025 were Style by Taylor Swift and Become Ocean by John Luther Adams.

When approaching Dunes, I didn’t want to use these three idioms as contrasting styles but rather as expressions of the same underlying principle: cycles of tension and release. Though the surface-level sounds may differ greatly between the three, they all focus on building and releasing musical tension over time. I use these three styles on a spectrum — from low to high energy — to create intense contrast that emphasizes the large-scale structure of the music.