Rachika Nayar on Disiniblud, Her New Project With Nina Keith
A snapshot from Smugglers Way and Hearing Things’ live listening event in New York City
On July 18, Smugglers Way will release Disiniblud, the self-titled collaborative debut from guitarist/producer Rachika Nayar and composer/multi-instrumentalist Nina Keith. Through processed guitar samples, transcendental glitch, twinkly synths and guest vocalists like Julianna Barwick, June McDoom, and Tujiko Noriko, Disiniblud has crafted a world that sounds like hope and love, the kind of record that embraces you in its wall of sound.
On April 10, Hearing Things and Smugglers Way co-hosted an early listening session for fans in New York at Silence Please, a tea house and deep listening room with the most bonkers acoustics and a host of primary-colored speakers that look like they were built for the set of a wacky kid’s film. (They sell them, if you have like $5,000 to spare.) Guests sipped on fermented teas and sat on couches while Hearing Things’ Andy Cush DJ’d vinyl to open the night, and then Nayar sat in a leather chair and played Disiniblud from her laptop. (Keith could not attend.) Though around 100 people were in the blue-lit room, I heard not a peep through the entirety of its playback, as though it were church—we just let its soothing, healing, ecstatic vibes envelop us. Did I shed a tear? I’ll never tell.
After we heard the album, Nayar and I sat down for a live Q&A, in which we discussed Disiniblud (pronounced “diz-knee-blood”), what “childlike wonder” means in relation to the album, and how sobbing and cuddling can translate to a song. A lightly edited transcript is below.
