LP – Black Vinyl.

New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised singer and transdisciplinarian GANAVYA among modern music’s most compelling vocalists, according to the Wall Street Journal has announced details of a new album, Nilam, due May 23, 2025. It follows last years Daughter Of A Temple, Gilles Petersons BBC 6 Music Album of the Year, similarly declared one of 2024s Top 10 Best Global Albums by The Guardian, who applauded GANAVYAs ability to harness the power of communal harmony to touch something deeper than song. Co-produced by Nils Frahm at LEITER Studio in Berlins Funkhaus complex, the new album by the singer whose work, says the New York Times, feels like prayerwith listeners hanging onto her every word will be released by LEITER on vinyl and via all digital platforms.

Listening to the remarkable Nilam, it seems implausible now that its inception might ever have been in doubt. So astonishing is its stillness, so profound its communication of sentiment, it feels as if it was always meant to be. A celebration of the ties that bind, and possibly the most tender-hearted music well hear this year, its intimate and honest, a poignant expression of gratitude for the blessings which keep us grounded, if only well recognise and welcome them. Indeed, it could have been transmitted directly from soul to stereo, from the way Not A Burden lifts a weight off the worlds shoulders to the peaceful Sees Fire, with Lands gentle groove full of space, Nine Jeweled Prayer serenely precious, and, throughout, GANAVYAs vocals like ripples on a lagoon.

Yet the truth is it owes its existence to chance an entity, like truth, to which GANAVYA is forever faithful and the few days between her 2024 Berlin sold out debut and another sold out performance at Londons Union Chapel. This opportunity, she was persuaded by LEITERs co-founder Felix Grimm, could be exploited to capture at last songs she had often performed live. And so, accompanied by long-time touring companions, bassist Max Ridley and harpist Charles Overton with whom shes toured over a decade, describing them as two of [her] most precious friends and teachers she entered the hallowed Funkhaus with Frahm behind the desk.

Nilams central theme, GANAVYA confesses, is doing what we need to do to keep carrying on. This perhaps isnt surprising given her touring not one but two albums in a single year. Earlier in 2024, shed released the equally acclaimed like the sky i’ve been too quiet, recorded with Shabaka Hutchings, and a debut single for LEITER, Draw Something Beautiful, arrived soon after in July. I feel like I barely made it out this past touring cycle, she says. Some days are good, and some days are bad. But the actual singing is always good. I realised, with every bone in my body, that unless you absolutely, absolutely want to be a musician, there’s just no sense doing this professionally. And still… I wake up every day and I am certain that I want to keep singing.

Nilam takes its title from nil, the Tamil word for land, a decision made instinctively, and not just because firm ground was what she was seeking during a difficult period of touring. The word nil can be a command either to move or to stay still, GANAVYA points out. To the person being senselessly quiet, it is a command to stand up for what is right. To the person being senselessly loud, it is a command to stand still. To me, it is balance, the heart of the true rhythm of life, of change, of land, of landing. All the same, the word perfectly describes these songs shes played, on and off, across the years with Ridley and Overton. The world changes and shifts and everything becomes dizzying as the earth keeps disappearing from under you, she concludes, but these songs have always been a place for me to stand, a place for us to be in a way that I don’t really know how to describe. Music has always been the one true land…

Tracklist:

1. Land
2. Song For Sad Times
3. Not A Burden
4. Sinathavar Mudikkum
5. Nine Jeweled Prayer
6. Pasayadan
7. Sees Fire