surrender

Ana Paz

June 28, 2025

Review by: Danielle Holian

Rising indie artist Ana Paz crafts a poignant, deeply introspective exploration of grief and emotional alchemy across just three tracks in her latest release, surrender. Clocking in at just over 13 minutes, this EP may be brief, but it’s expansive in feeling; each moment is drenched in vulnerability, sonic experimentation, and quiet strength. Melding ambient textures with indie pop, chamber instrumentation, and downtempo pulses, surrender is a rare kind of project: intimate yet cinematic, restrained yet emotionally explosive.

From the opening notes of the first track, “what’s left to say”, Paz invites the listener into the rawest terrain of loss: the anger, confusion, and silence that often accompany it. There’s an urgency to the production: pulsing synth loops and intricate percussive patterns churn beneath her breathy, emotionally loaded vocals. Her delivery is soft but never fragile; there’s power in her restraint. This is grief at its sharpest edge, articulated with a kind of lyrical clarity that cuts deep: the things unsaid, the spaces between words, the ache of emotional dissonance.

The EP then transitions into “still here”, a stunning midpoint that represents a turn toward acceptance and reflection. Here, Paz’s sound softens, creating a space of contemplation. The production feels like a warm cocoon: layered harmonies float alongside ambient pads and subtle instrumental flourishes, suggesting the moment when the fog of early grief begins to lift. It’s a song about survival, about what’s left when the storm quiets. Paz resists cliché, offering instead a sonic meditation that feels both grounded and transcendent.

Closing the EP is “where time stops”, a haunting and beautiful tribute to memory, legacy, and the quiet peace that comes from honouring what’s gone. The chamber pop influence is most felt here, with delicate strings and minimalist piano lines giving the track a timeless quality. There’s a sense of stillness, like a breath held just long enough to feel the weight of it. Ana’s vocals drift gently through the arrangement, like recollections emerging from a dream. The result is a powerful closer that doesn’t seek resolution, but instead embraces the bittersweet nature of remembrance.

The emotional resonance of surrender is made even more compelling by its sonic craftsmanship. Paz collaborated with producers across Miami, Puerto Rico, and New York City, resulting in a richly textured soundscape that remains cohesive while drawing on diverse influences. Echoes of artists like Radiohead, Moses Sumney, and Weyes Blood can be heard in the EP’s dreamy production and genre-defying structure, but Ana Paz ultimately carves out a space entirely her own, where sound is used as a tool for storytelling, transformation, and healing.

Equally noteworthy is the visual aesthetic accompanying the EP. Designed by Miami-based artist Martina Hoyos, the artwork complements the sonic themes with imagery that suggests release, metamorphosis, and stillness. The visuals work not as accessories, but as extensions of the music, another layer in the emotional journey Paz invites us into.

What sets surrender apart is its emotional intelligence. Rather than trying to resolve or simplify grief, Paz allows it to exist in all its shades. She offers no easy answers, only presence, an invitation to feel, to sit with discomfort, and ultimately, to emerge changed. In doing so, she crafts not just an EP but a kind of sonic ritual, one that will resonate with anyone who has experienced loss or longed for music that meets them where they are.

With surrender, Paz has delivered a powerful collection of songs on how to turn personal grief into collective art. It’s a luminous, transformative work that solidifies her place as a voice to watch in the indie landscape, one unafraid to blur genres, confront pain, and create beauty from its ashes.

surrender, is streaming now, and be sure to follow Ana Paz on social media to see what she has up her sleeve next.