The Brighton-based Scottish-Thai singer-songwriter’s new LP is inspired by the death of her grandmother in 2021, exploring and celebrating her east-Asian heritage in a gorgeously warm, eclectic collection that includes sounds of the Thai dulcimer. Ganya grew up in Singapore, but spent her summers in the northeast of Thailand where her mum’s side of the family is from, visiting her grandmother, and her own childhood diary memories colour several songs. Musical inspiration included a visit to Buddhapadipa Temple – the Thai Buddhist temple in Wimbledon – and meeting player Artit Phonron with instruments including the ranat ek, saw duang and khim, and later Chinnathip Poollap in Thailand who could play the Thai oboe or “pi”. Rippling, magical Thai-inspired sounds then mix with electric guitar and western instruments, synth and MIDI samples, such as on title track, one about honouring ancestors “sharing your grief, sharing your care, not forgetting them; bringing them food and water.” As in her last album, there’s a theme of sharing and community at play. Previous Song of the Day Fortune is another standout, a song dedicated to her mother and “for all the diasporic mums out there”, in reference to tough lives and sacrifices made by many Asian mums. Chaiyo! recalls her granddad watching Thai boxing on the TV, shouting “chaiyo!”, which translates as “hooray” or “cheers”. Barn Nork is another standout – a phrase used to describe outsiders, something which her Thai family have sometimes called her as a jokey insult of being only half-Thai, one she now embraces, such in Thai as a tongue-in-cheek embracing of what Ganya laughingly describes as being “a noob”. On the closer Myna, British-Nigerian musician Tony Njoku joins her to perform the part of her late grandfather, with sparse but powerful lines like “How did you live the way you did?”. Beautiful, eccentric, charming and very touching, it’s an album of candid emotions and a vivid warmth, a huge musical embrace, and one to be cherished. Out on Bella Union.
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