162: ganavya - Song For Sad Times

One of those moments that leaks into your day like unexpected sunlight, discovering the new album from ganavya is both a meditative and restorative discovery. Recorded at Nils Frahm's at LEITER Studio in Berlin’s Funkhaus complex, and co-produced by the maestro himself, Nilam finds the NYC-born, Tamil Nadu-raised multi-instrumentalist in truly arresting form.

And it wasn't even supposed to happen; the burst of recording only taking place after "a few unplanned days between her sold-out 2024 debut in Berlin and her show at London’s Union Chapel made time in the studio unexpectedly possible."

By design or circumstance, Nilam is an astonishing body of work, an exquisitely detailed recording where experimental passages drift through jazzy, ambient clouds of barely-there sound. What holds the whole thing together, however, is ganavya's transfixing voice, a kind of spotlit character all of its own creation that you can never take your eyes off, never peel your ears away from.

You can pick any of the seven songs hear and find yourself lost in some bold and colourful new world. The near-ten-minutes of 'Nine Jeweled Prayer' are subtle and utterly captivating, while the more playful, animated nature of its opening three-minutes offers something else once more.

A unique and truly beautiful piece of work; do whatever you can to wrap yourself up in its world.

Nilam is out now. Buy it here, via Bandcamp

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