Music New and Newly-Loved

most often combined with dance and theater or dance theater

Hey there,

I recently started enjoying a bunch of new and new-to-me music. As the saying goes, the people need both “bread and roses.” So here are some super fresh roses. Enjoy! 🌹🌹🌹

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

Tune-Yards

Tune-Yards is a two-person outfit sited in Oakland, CA. They construct a lot of their own rig. They have a ton going on electronically, visually, musically, and movemently. Super playful and sweet.

Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding is a bassist and native Portlander. Her voice is gorgeous and indefinably unusual. There’s a lot of jazz here, but also a collage of other musics. She’s won five GRAMMYs. So new to me, but maybe not to you!

Ablaye Cissoko & Cyrille Brotto

A magical collaboration between Senegalese Koro player, singer, and composer Ablaye Cissoko and Cyrille Brotto—a French musician and composer best known for his work on the diatonic accordion. They are playing together in Portland, Oregon on April 11th and 12th (2025).

Kimmortal

Kimmortal is a young, queer Filipino-Canadian musician, singer-songwriter and visual artist hailing from Vancouver, B.C. Her music combines activism, casual, but hard-hitting lyrics, movement, beauty, and playfulness.

The first video is a collaboration between Kimmortal (music) and SAMMAY (dance), a Filipinx American choreographer. It was created on Tongva Land and filmed by SAMMAY’s mama.

Kimmortal says: “Please feel free to light a candle to receive that abundance and send prayers for yourself and the community, send intentions out and in like the waves and cry if you want to.”

Velvet Shakes

So much great at-home music and dance happened when we were all in lockdown. Score another one for the pandemic.

Sylvette

A five-piece alternative rock band and choreographers (?) from Manchester. They’re “wordy,” which I like. The music has a somewhat porous wall of sound vibe.

Rachel’s

A student of mine thought I would like Rachel’s, and they were right. Unfortunately literally not around any more as a couple of the principal musicians passed away. But eternally gorgeous. Rachel's was an American chamber music group formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1991. They play a blend of classical, post-rock, and minimalist a la Terry Riley with a heavy dose of yearning a la Philip Glass. They featured instruments such as viola, cello, piano, guitars, and percussion.

Sofia Isella

I put this last because you might have “hung up” on me otherwise. This is actually one of Sofia’s least hard-hitting songs. She says things that need saying. Wildly popular, which is encouraging.

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter on Substack to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.