New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised singer and transdisciplinarian ganavya – “among modern music's most compelling vocalists” — (the Wall Street Journal) today announces a new album, Nilam, out May 23th. Co-produced by Nils Frahm at Berlin’s Funkhaus studio, the new album by “the singer whose work,” says the New York Times, “feels like prayer…with listeners hanging onto her every word” follows last year’s Alice Coltrane-indebted Daughter Of A Temple, praised by NPR, BBC and The Guardian, who applauded ganavya’s ability to harness “the power of communal harmony to touch something deeper than song.”
The announcement arrives today with the song “SEES FIRE,” which arrived to ganavya after her temporary ban on a popular social media platform after calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“My grandmother had something called ‘The Kitchen Orchestra’,” ganavya continues. “We believed everything— and by this virtue, everyone— was a musician. People would make instruments from whatever they could, like kitchen utensils. When I was banned from [a popular social media platform] under community guidelines for writing the word ceasefire, I didn’t know what to do. The absurdity of it risked my sanity. But I remembered the strange humor and seriousness in the practice of hiding everything in plain sight, and wrote the words for ‘SEES FIRE’— presumably a song about, say, the earth burning— and found that I could hide as many hopes and dreams in language so that the song would find who it needed to find without being killed on the way. ‘A child sees fire / I wish I could build you a palace / tine the right fires in you.’ It’s all there, hidden. We find it, and each other, when we are open to it.”
Listen to “SEES FIRE” here: https://ltr.lnk.to/SeesFire
Nilam’s central theme, then, ganavya confesses, is “doing what we need to do to keep carrying on.” This perhaps, isn’t surprising given her touring not one but two albums in a single year. Earlier in 2024, she’d also 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” which arrived last July.
Listening to Nilam now, it seems implausible that its inception might ever have been in doubt. A celebration of the ties that bind, and the most tender-hearted music from ganavya yet, it’s intimate, hushed and honest, a poignant expression of gratitude for the blessings which keep one grounded, if only we’ll recognize 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 world’s shoulders to the peaceful “SEES FIRE,” with ‘Land’’s gentle groove full of space, “Nine Jeweled Prayer” serenely precious, and, throughout, ganavya’s vocals reverberate through like ripples on a lagoon.
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 she’s 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...”
ganavya may have earned four graduate degrees in music since her Kitchen Orchestra days – including from Berklee College of Music, UCLA and Harvard, to whom Quincy Jones recommended her – but most of her childhood was spent away from school, dancing and singing on the pilgrimage trail, learning the storytelling art of harikathā and singing poetry. On the pilgrimage trail, they would sing songs called “abhangs” or “songs without end” which were spiritual poems that would keep everyone spirited while walking towards the temple for days. The “Pasayadan,” she explains, “is an abhang from the pilgrimage tradition. It is one of the last prayers we’d sing, where the young saint prays for the sun to rise in all cold hearts, for the wisdom to see each other as wish-fulfilling trees, that we are each other’s sanctuaries, that we remember that we are each other’s true temples. You treat cruelty like a disease. It introduces such softness to life. For me, given my particular life, it is a softness that saves me.”
Her most recent album, Daughter of a Temple, draws upon a vast cast of contributors across multiple disciplines, among them esperanza spalding, Vijay Iyer, Shabaka Hutchings, Immanuel Wilkins, and more. Since then, ganavya has journeyed across the US and UK incessantly on tour, performing at Knoxville’s Big Ears festival just last month. This May, she’ll return to the road with a string of dates in the UK before heading back to the states for a number of west coast fall headlining dates in November with stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco and more. See the full list of dates below and stay tuned for more to come from ganavya.
Track List
1. LAND
2. SONG FOR SAD TIMES
3. NOT A BURDEN
4. SINATHAVAR MUDIKKUM
5. NINE JEWELED PRAYER
6. PASAYADAN
7. SEES FIRE
Label: LEITER
Release Date: MAY 23, 2025
Catalogue No: LTR051
Format: VINYL, DIGITAL
Listen: LTR.LNK.TO/NILAM
Visit: LEITER-VERLAG.COM
GANAVYA 2025 TOUR DATES
05-12-25 Mon Brighton, UK Brighton Music Festival
05-13-25 Tue Leeds, UK Belgrave Music Hall
05-14-25 Wed Bristol, UK Bristol Beacon
05-16-25 Fri Manchester, UK Manchester Jazz Festival
05-27-25 Tue Portland, ME SPACE
05-28-25 Wed Boston, MA City Winery - Haymarket Lounge
05-29-25 Thu Portsmouth, NH 3S Artspace
05-30-25 Fri Northampton, MA Iron Horse Music Hall
05-31-25 Sat Saugerties, NY The Local
06-01-25 Sun Brattleboro, VT Epsilon Spires
06-03-25 Tue Barcelona, ES Primavera A La Ciutat
06-26-25 Thu Burgundy, FR Festival Les Musicaves
06-28-25 Sat Toulouse, FR Les Siestes Festival
07-11-25 Fri Rotterdam, NL North Sea Jazz Festival
07-12-25 Sat Gent, BE Gent Jazz Festival
07-23-25 Wed Lyon, FR Les Nuits de Fourvière
08-06-25 Wed Oslo, NO ØYA Festival
08-07-25 Thu Gothenburg, SE Way Out West
08-17-25 Sun Dorset, UK We Out Here Festival
09-11-25 Thu Omaha, NE Bemis Center
09-12-25 Fri Chicago, IL TBD
09-13-25 Sat Milwaukee, WI Vilarium
09-14-25 Sun Iowa City, IA James Theater
09-18-25 Thu Montreal, QC Le Studio
09-21-25 Sun Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts
09-22-25 Mon Washington DC Songbyrd
10-08-25 Wed Zürich, CH Johanneskirche Zürich
10-16-25 Thu Lisbon, PT B.Leza
10-19-25 Sun Nijmegen, NL Doornroosje
10-20-25 Mon Amsterdam, NL De Duif
10-22-25 Wed Warsaw, PL Jassmine
10-26-25 Sun Copenhagen, DK Hotel Cecil
11-18-25 Tue Vancouver, BC Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
11-19-25 Wed Seattle, WA Fremont Abbey Arts
11-20-25 Thu Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
11-21-25 Fri San Francisco, CA Noe Valley Ministry
11-22-25 Sat Los Angeles, CA Pico Union
11-23-25 Sun San Diego, CA The Loft at UCSD
