Audiopile Review: What if we were to tell you there’s an artist called Ganavya, who has performed live with Sault, is produced by Nils Frahm, and sounds a lot like Arooj Aftab? If you have any sense, you’ll want to hear her new album, ‘Nilam’, like, right away. And when you do, you’re going to be floored, as those in attendance evidently were by her cameo with Sault. You might initially fear that it all sounds a bit TOO MUCH like Arooj Aftab, with its haunting mixture of classically Indian melodies and ambient jazz arrangements. But forget that mess. You wouldn’t stop listening to David Bowie because he sounds too much like the godlike Peter Hammill, would you? More to the point, Ganavya Doraiswamy is hardly a lightweight, having received oodles of gushing reviews and worked with everyone from Quincy Jones to Floating Points. In any case, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, yo, and this is some delicious shit to get your mouth watering.

***

New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised singer and transdisciplinarian Ganavya presents a new album, Nilam. It follows Daughter Of A Temple, Gilles Peterson’s BBC 6 Music Album of the Year, similarly declared one of 2024’s Top 10 Best Global Albums by The Guardian, who applauded Ganavya’s ability to harness “the power of communal harmony to touch something deeper than song.” Co-produced by Nils Frahm at Leiter Studio in Berlin’s Funkhaus complex. 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 listeners will hear this year, it’s intimate and honest, a poignant expression of gratitude for the blessings which keep people grounded, if only they’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 like ripples on a lagoon.