Mixing her hypnotic voice with field recordings that remind her of her environment in Kenya and America, Nyokabi Kariũki has announced her debut album ‘Feeling Body’. The album charts a process I’ve also been grappling with – long covid recovery. Nyokabi is largely back to normal now but her struggles and thoughts are captured in a variety of different ways. The album itself features a collection of vocal tracks, spoken word pieces and a mixture of musical song arrangements and more experimental field recordings. Expect to hear a lot of water from different places in the world including ice cracking and mountain rivers in Kenya. Interspersed you’ll also hear violin and trumpet performances from guest musicians that will be heard raw as well as digitally manipulated.
Kicking off this new era for Nyokabi Kariũki is ‘Nazama’ – a beautifully poetic and hypnotic vocal-led piece that moves from something quite ethereal and gentile to incorporating deep layers of resonant sound, trumpets reworked into horns and an underwater current. It straddles musicality and experimental sound design and that’s exactly why Nyokabi Kariũki’s music continually draws me in.
Explore ‘Nazama’ below, the track is out now. ‘Feeling Body’ is due for release on 3rd March and is available for pre-order on Bandcamp.
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