Turbine finds Sijya turning the vastness of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall into her new song
A song born in the shadow of one of London’s most imposing spaces, Turbine finds Sijya turning the vastness of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall into sound. Written during the same creative period as her EP Leather & Brass, the track has taken its time reaching listeners, arriving now with distorted synths, immersive atmospheres and a deliberate play of texture. Industrial yet intimate, Turbine sits comfortably in the tension between opposites that runs through Sijya’s work. Its release also brings a visual counterpart directed by longtime collaborator Tito, drawing on the mirror installation created by set designer Kanika Gupta for Sijya’s Lollapalooza set.
Turbine was written during the same creative period as her EP Leather & Brass
What was the first sound, image or feeling that sparked Turbine?
Turbine started with heavy synth sounds that sounded to me like old machines. I had come to Tate Modern in 2018 — as one does when they visit London — and I saw the Turbine Hall with the art of Danish artists’ collective Superflex. It was an installation called One Two Three Swing! and a part of it included this giant metal ball swinging on a colourful floor in a giant hall, with people just chilling underneath. When I was invited to play here in 2023, I’d only done something like four or five shows in India, so it was quite surreal. That space is incredible. It used to be a power station. I played this song for the first time at the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London and maybe I made it with the space in mind.
Turbine Hall is vast. Did its scale influence the way you approached the sound of the song?
I normally make music that’s very intimate, I like the feeling of smallness. Not many effects, not many spatial elements too. I usually like to keep my voice quite dry and natural too. This song, however, is a contrast to that, I’ve used big reverbs – something I don’t normally like to use in my music. It feels big and grand, like the space. I want Turbine to make the listener feel the vastness and silence and perhaps some version of something industrial.
The track is built around distorted synths, immersive atmospheres and texture. How did you arrive at this particular sonic palette?
This is the palette I arrived at for Leather & Brass. Something heavy and metallic that sounds like old machinery. I was curious to imagine decay and rust sonically.
Was there a specific sound or production experiment that became the turning point for the track?
For this EP, the production trick was putting all the sounds through guitar pedals, even the drums. That was a turning point for the sound I have been exploring, with the help of my recording engineer Jay Panelia.
Why did Turbine remain unreleased for so long?
It’s funny how we think and edit and decide to put things out in the world. While such decisions are very thought-out, they’re also very random and instinctual. It really just depends on how you’re feeling about a track on a day. There’s a lot of chance at play. All artistes probably have their best music hidden away in storage. Turbine signals my interest in drums. Before this, my music has often been called ambient pop, but now I’m starting to work with rhythms a lot more and using them to express rage and playfulness.
The video follows the mirror installation created by Kanika Gupta for your Lollapalooza set. What drew you to revisit that visual world for Turbine?
The set was incredible and we had to do something with it; Lollapalooza could not have been the end of that set. The song and the set fit perfectly as well. The funhouse mirrors create an endless, distorted vastness, similar to the stuff I was exploring with the music.
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