Nyokabi Kariũki Announces Debut Album, Shares New Song “Nazama”: Listen

Kenyan composer and sound artist Nyokabi Kariũki has announced her first full-length album: Feeling Body is out March 3 via New York’s Cmntx Records. To preview the project, Kariũki has shared the album-closing song, “Nazama.” Find it below.

Feeling Body follows Kariũki’s 2022 EP, Peace Places: Kenyan Memories. According to a press release, the new album was inspired by the musician’s bout with long COVID. “There is a lot to say about being sick, about being sick during a pandemic; about how the world treats you if you are sick for longer than ‘just a cold,’” she said. “But, I am ever in awe of our bodies, and how they keep going, despite and in spite of all the pain we go through in life. In a way, this album is an expression of love, and gratitude, to my own.”

Contributors to Feeling Body include violinist and vocalist Yaz Lancaster, trumpeter Michael Denis Ó Callaghan, drummer Chris O’Leary, and double bassist Ian Fales.

Read Pitchfork’s reviews of Nyokabi Kariũki’s “Equator Song” and “Nazama.”