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Spells

by Nailah Hunter

supported by
jen-du-chatsein
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jen-du-chatsein I love this album! It helps me imagine the micro and macrocosms in the earth and in the soil and in space! a multi-scalar, multi sensory experience of ecosystems across time and space. Warm golden light, slow crystal growth over eons, geological forces and deep time, walking through woods, looking at plants and the smell of petrichor (the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil)
Fernando Villalon
Fernando Villalon thumbnail
Fernando Villalon Immense splendour that seems from the heavenly gardens.. Far beyond Favorite track: Enter.
answer-beat
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answer-beat 2020 rookie of the year. Thank you for all of this astoundingly beautiful music so far! Favorite track: White Flower, Dark Hill.
Grant Burgess
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Grant Burgess This is an absolutely beautiful and enchanting tape. The sound seems to emanate from a space that's both large but close. Notes bounce around; some reach your ears while others get lost in crevices and secret rooms.
Fabio Viola
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Fabio Viola I want more from this artist and I want it yesterday. Sublime. Favorite track: White Flower, Dark Hill.
newcommute
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newcommute Unbelievably beautiful debut
RIYL Laraaji, Alice Coltrane Favorite track: Talisman.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    *3rd edition of 300
    *cassette includes multi-panel fold-out book of spells:
    **paintings from Ianna
    **incantations from Nailah.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Spells via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 300 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Spells Deluxe Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    ++
    *8page 12inch color spellbook of paintings and incantations
    *b-side bonus material "Nacre Meadow" & vinyl-exclusive "Listening Sea"
    ++

    Includes unlimited streaming of Spells via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Test Pressings (Hand-Marbled Jackets)
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    *limited edition of 4 copies
    *Hand-Marbled Jackets
    *signed by Nailah, stamped and numbered by LR
    *b-side bonus material "Nacre Meadow" & vinyl-exclusive "Listening Sea"
    *100% of revenue passed to Nailah (label share 0%)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Spells via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
2.
Ruins 01:58
3.
Enter 01:44
4.
Quiet Light 02:00
5.
6.
Talisman 02:03

about

Spells is the debut release by Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist and composer Nailah Hunter on Leaving Records. Each of the EP’s six tracks represent a spell, a unique sonic place forged by imagination and incantation. Ambient in nature, each spell highlights Hunter’s skills as a composer. “It really started off with me just wanting to kind of reclaim the way that I thought about creating music and then also performing it,” Hunter says. “I was like, okay. I need to get back to the basics of why I like to create and what it does for me … so I set out to make spells, in the sense that each layer is one of the steps in incantation... It became about purpose... the procedure and the ritual, so that when it came to performing it, I wasn’t able to get into my head about it because I was just carrying out these steps. Each track is its own incantation, its own spell, its own world.” Colorful atmospheres permeate Spells, each track offering tranquil, reflective setting. Hunter explains, “Another thing that I always wanted to focus on and through making this project have sort of been able to name is that, I like to create places, songs as locations ...whether there are field recordings [involved] or not.”


Opening track “Soil” is accompanied by a poem: “a seed is sown, a song from silence.” Its beautiful harp and angelic voices establish the album’s mode of beautiful stillness. This is followed by “Ruins,” a tranquil soundscape abetted by insect field recordings and a slightly warped, heaven-bound trajectory, described by Hunter as a love spell. “Another thing that’s really important to me about my relationship with music is synesthesia. It’s all very palette based... For the song “Ruins,” it comes on like magenta and clementine.” On the colors present in the single “White Flower, Dark Hill,” Hunter describes “the idea of the purples and navies of the night sky and the way that shadows appear under full moonlight, the different shades of moonlight, and how it always brings out the color white.” Each track’s nuanced production and big, emotional sounds do carry a charged energy, colorful and magnetic. The shifting phases and sustained drones of “Enter” mimic the feeling of approaching and walking through a rift into a fantastical world. The listener is advanced into album highlight “Quiet Light,” which Hunter states captures, “that feeling of being like golden light in a cold still pool of water, this very specific image and feeling that I just love so much.”


Spells is a powerful opening statement that uses this musician's innate artistic gifts to promote healing and self awareness. Of the album’s inspirations, she adds, “definitely rune magick and just the idea of creating places of rest … sonic places of rest, places to ponder and consider your feelings. Me making music, it’s always been about healing for me and making myself feel better. If other people listen to it and also feel better, then that is delightful.”

credits

released May 28, 2020

written, performed, recorded and produced by Nailah Hunter

Paintings by Ianna Vasale
Cassette Design by Judy Kim
Mastering by Matthew "Matthewdavid" McQueen

Thank you to : Matthew for his musical wizardry and nurturing, Ianna for her luminous spirit and wonderous paintings, Cadmar for true love and his generous support, my feelings for calling me to this gate, and my ancestors & kin for guiding my path.

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about

Nailah Hunter Los Angeles, California

LA-based harpist & composer.

inquiries: info@aura-productions.com

instagram.com/nailah.hunter

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