Described by The Wall Street Journal as “among modern music’s most compelling vocalists,” New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised singer and transdisciplinary artist Ganavya today announces details of an ambitious new album, Daughter of a Temple, due November 15, 2024. Released by Nils Frahm’s label, LEITER, on vinyl and via all digital platforms, it follows her appearance at SAULT’s 2023 live debut in London where, The Guardian wrote, her “voice had a delicate emotive heft that could turn stoics into sobbing wrecks”. Her first single for the label, ‘draw something beautiful’, appeared earlier this year in July.
Daughter of a Temple was recorded over a week at the Moore’s Opera House in Houston, Texas, after Ganavya had reached out to friends and associates over the preceding months to join her for “a gathering in and for devotion.” This was to draw on studies of what she terms the musico-philosophies of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, and she’d even promised herself she’d invite anyone who brought up Turiyasangitananda’s name around her. “You really shouldn’t do that,” she chuckles. “It turns out a lot of people talk about her!”
Consequently, the album – which also brings the Hindu tradition of harikatha into the 21st century – draws upon a vast cast of contributors across multiple disciplines, among them esperanza spalding, Vijay Iyer, Shabaka Hutchings, Immanuel Wilkins, Peter Sellars, Rajna Swaminathan, Charlotte Braithwaite, Chris Sholar, Darian Donovan Thomas, and Bindhumalini Narayanswamy. Her mother even helped cook for participants. The results, an innovative and deeply moving blend of spiritual jazz and South Asian devotional music, were initially recorded and edited by Ryan Renteria, then further edited and mixed by Nils Frahm at LEITER’s Funkhaus studio in 2024.
In the spirit of Elder Wayne Shorter, who once said “There is no such thing as a beginning and no such thing as an end,” the album begins in the middle of it all, with GANAVYA joined by spalding for ‘A Love Chant,’ taken from an improvised concert performed on the last day of the ensemble’s ritual gathering. Iyer’s piano, quickly accompanied by Wilkins’ saxophone, then guides us through ‘Om Supreme’’s uplifting ten minutes, while a prayer recorded at their home lends ‘Elders Wayne and Carolina’ and reminds us of their eternity. ‘Journey in Satchidananda / Ghana Nila’ – edited from a 45-minute rendition performed by over thirty musicians, with dancers audible in the background – expands upon the bass line from one of Turiyasangitananda’s most recognizable prayers, and ‘Om Navah Sivaya’, the first song Ganavya ever performed publicly, opens with Charles Overton on harp and features her nephew Krsna on guitar, as well as her father and mother, among others, on guest vocals.
If you ask Ganavya – raised in India’s southernmost state and withdrawn from school at a young age to study music with her family – what first inspired her to make this remarkable record, her answer is typically honest. “Loneliness,” she replies, before gently, thoughtfully elaborating. “You were raised in a village, then one day you wake up and you’re a graduate student at Harvard. The life you live doesn’t make sense to people back home anymore, and what you’re seeking is that sense of village, so you invite as many people as possible.”
Ganavya has journeyed from a childhood spent dancing and singing on the pilgrimage trail to earning four degrees – including at Berklee College of Music, UCLA and Harvard (Quincy Jones wrote her recommendation letter to the latter). Her most recent album, ‘like the sky I’ve been too quiet’, was produced by Shabaka Hutchings, and released earlier this year on his label Native Rebel. Featuring contributions from Floating Points, Tom Herbert, Carlos Niño, Leafcutter John, and others, the album was hailed by The Quietus as “haunting, otherworldly…balancing darkness and light, weaving together intimate stories with thread of cosmic spirituality.” The Guardian added that Ganavya “pushes traditional craft into a newly evocative and atmospheric direction.”
Stay tuned for more to come from Ganavya.
Track List
1. A LOVE CHANT (FEAT. ESPERANZA SPALDING)
2. OM SUPREME (FEAT. VIJAY IYER & IMMANUEL WILKINS)
3. PREMA MUDITHA (FEAT. SHABAKA HUTCHINGS)
4. ELDERS WAYNE AND CAROLINA
5. OM NAMAH SIVAYA (FEAT. CHARLES OVERTON & GANESAN DORAISWAMY)
6. JOURNEY IN SATCHIDANANDA / GHANA NILA
7. A LOVE SUPREME, PART 1: ISHMAEL WADADA LEO SMITH
8. A LOVE SUPREME, PART 2: PETER SELLARS (FEAT. PETER SELLARS)
9. A LOVE SUPREME, PART 3: ALICE COLTRANE
10. A LOVE SUPREME, PART 4: IONE (FEAT. IONE)
Label: LEITER
Release Date: NOVEMBER 15, 2024
Catalogue No: LTR045
Format: VINYL, DIGITAL
Listen: LTR.LNK.TO/DOAT
Visit: LEITER-VERLAG.COM
GANAVYA 2024 TOUR DATES
October 4 - Philadelphia, PA - Solar Myth
October 9 - Los Angeles, CA - Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
October 12 - Cardiff, UK - Llais Festival
November 6 - Zurich, CH - Johanneskirche
November 8 - Utrecht, - NL - Le Guess Who? Festival
November 9 - Groningen, NL - Rockit Festival
November 10 - Paris, FR - Café de la Danse
November 12 - Denmark, DK - Bremen Teater København V *Opening for Shabaka
November 14 - Leuven, BE - 30CC
November 15 - Brussels, BE - Fifty Lab Music Festival at AB Club
November 17 - Berlin, DE - Silent Green - Kuppelhalle
November 22 - Dublin, IE - Dublin Unitarian Church
November 23 - London, UK - EFG London Jazz Festival - Union Chapel
