Surrey-based Asad Khan (aka Khanvict) is an escape artist. His love for lush strings, cinematic swells, and a West Coast bass music punch instantly transport the listener – conjuring visions of desert expanses and dense jungle paradises. The inspiration behind ‘Escape’, Khanvict’s second EP, originated early in the pandemic. Deep in lockdown in Surrey, BC, Asad began a series of weekly livestreams on Twitch which he titled ‘Escape’. These free flowing sessions, attracting up to 2,500 viewers on Friday nights, spoke to the collective need for an escape. An escape from the lockdown. An escape from the fear and uncertainty. An escape into a feeling of freedom through music.

In that, ‘Escape’ is the most personal and sophisticated Khanvict effort to date. The pandemic was a time of intense creativity and gestation for him, and that is evidenced in the attention to detail paid to production, arrangement, and song writing. Impedance, featuring celebrated violinist Raaginder (LA), brings to mind the minimal desert soundscapes of Zhu. While ‘Heavy’, the first single on the album, is reminiscent of the bass driven wobble of CloZee or Troyboi.

This year has been a big year for Khanvict, hitting his first million streams on Spotify. His recent release, the politically charged ’Closer’, has racked up 2.3M plays on YouTube and garnered global press from Rolling Stone to Times of India to The Hindu. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.