ganavya has returned with new single “Sinathavar Mudikkum,” featuring the long extinct tamil harp, the yāzh. The song is the latest from ganavya’s new album, Nilam, out May 23th. Co-produced by Nils Frahm at Berlin’s Funkhaus studio. The track follows last year’s Alice Coltrane-indebted “Daughter Of A Temple.”

Of the track ganavya says: “A few years ago, I was praying over a dirty sink covered in toothpaste while speaking on the phone to Elsz, a harpist, about one day being able to see an extinct ancient Tamil harp called the yaazh. A few days later, a cousin of mine wrote to me saying his friend from college had studied an ancient instrument and was reconstructing it from old books— might I want to support the endeavor by ordering one? He said the instrument was a yaazh. This is how the yaazh to me— both the oldest instrument I’ve known or played, and somehow the newest, as it never existed in physical form until a few years ago. ”

She continues, “The yaazh was a Tamil harp that most of us only had vaguely heard about. Jaffna in Sri Lanka comes from “Yaazhpaanam,” which means the land of the yaazh— it was a mythical old instrument that lived only in our imagination. Recently, a friend of my young cousin opened an endeavor called Uru, where he custom makes yaazhs after reading as much as possible about it from history books. It has some modern parts, here: it uses skin and wood, but it also uses modern tuning pegs and strings. He is still working on the larger versions of the yaazh. This video, an old prayer for Lord Muruga, is a prayer for the God we know to ride around the world on his peacock— the same bird that forms the heart of this yaazh.”

Nilam’s central theme, 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.”

ganavya
Nilam
Track List
LEITER

1. LAND
2. SONG FOR SAD TIMES
3. NOT A BURDEN
4. SINATHAVAR MUDIKKUM
5. NINE JEWELED PRAYER
6. PASAYADAN
7. SEES FIRE

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

Pre-order Nilam HERE