Tar Of is the art-rock project of New York-based artists Ariyan Basu and Ramin Rahni. They both hate the Sun.

Were I is an EP about being and becoming, as well as the tension between what one ought to be and what one is. Sonically this tension takes shape as a genre exercise in uneasy listening, a kind of adult-contemporary-classical: art-rock movements flecked with makeshift orchestral instrumentation.

"Maryam" examines familial expectation through the lens of Islamic symbolism and Mideast birthing rituals. "Oughta Be" imagines the residual feelings that linger after seeing someone in a dream as a kind of haunting. "Leisure" finds comfort in mantric repetition and refusal of work...the utopian demand as both a perspective and a provocation. And "Were I" is a song about mud. Mud as creation myth, mud as cleansing, mud as catastrophe.

With a throughline of shambolic strings, reeds, and woodwind, the Were I EP harkens to Portsmouth Sinfonia style performance art, and is a further exploration of the balance between levity and gravity that the duo started with their 2020 album, Instant Light.

1. Maryam
2. Oughta Be
3. Leisure
4. Were I

Digital Only