“Seal” is the latest single by ganavya featuring the brilliant Floating Points. It’s the third single from her forthcoming album ‘like the sky i’ve been too quiet’, which also features contributions from artists, such as Yahael Camara Onono, Leafcutter John, Tom Herbert and more.

Ganavya Doraiswamy, born in New York and raised in Tamil Nadu, is a critically acclaimed vocalist. She melds both American and South Asian traditions in her style which is predominantly influenced by the art form of harikathā, a Maharashtran composite art form, and singing poetry that critiques hierarchical social structures.

Regular readers of this site already know all about Floating Points. His liberal approach to electronic music and jazz makes it an outright ludicrous task to categorise his music into a befitting genre.

Seal kicks off with syncopated “dreamlike” arpeggios. These arpeggios can be heard in the background throughout the song. This sets the stage for Ganavya’s mesmerising vocal and highly syncopated staggering drumming.

The melismatic vocal enters the scene with restrained wistful singing in South-Indian solfege. Each melody and scale runs are embellished with traditional Indian classical alankara, such as gamakas, andolan etc. The control as well as fluidity in her voice is bound to take the listeners to a state of unearthly bliss. The articulation of melody lines and the course taken by thumping drums brings out a palpable sense of improvisation which is not surprising considering the artists’ profound understanding of jazz and South-Indian tradition.

Seal is a masterfully crafted single and its release will only heighten the anticipation for the whole album. Along with previously released singles “El kebda, let it go” and “Forgive Me My” do hint toward a phenomenal success to this album.