Flying Out's #10 album of 2023. Ninja Tune imprint Big Dada have welcomed Iranian/American songwriter Rahill to their impressive stable. Born from a love of Stereolab, Curtis Mayfield, and Kool Keith, Flowers At Your Feet defies genre, with Rahill's roots in psych-rock giving way to an increasingly eclectic, left-field pop sound.
Iranian-American singer-songwriter Rahill announces a deeply personal solo project Flowers At Your Feet on Ninja Tune imprint Big Dada, her new label home in which she sits comfortably alongside labelmates Yaya Bey and LYZZA.
The album – which across its 14 tracks features collaborations with Beck and Jasper Marsalis (Slauson Malone) – follows Rahill’s nostalgic 2022 covers EP Sun Songs and sees her moving along a journey of self-acceptance and self-love; reflecting on childhood and family while honouring the people and moments that defined her. The project draws on elements of trip-hop, jazz and alt-rock music, all underpinned by Rahill’s reverent and thoughtful lyricism. Recorded in phases during the lockdown, the album was created in close collaboration between Rahill and producer Alex Epton (FKA Twigs, Arca) who immediately identified the strength and potential of Rahill’s pre-existing solo compositions, some of which she’d written years earlier.
Rahill Jamalifard is a multidisciplinary artist and musician hailing from Lansing, Michigan and presently based in upstate New York’s Hudson Valley. As a founding member of Brooklyn garage-rock mainstays, Habibi, Rahill garnered a reputation for alchemizing an eclectic range of influences, distilling them into captivating and heavy pop songs that gestured towards the modes and melodies of the Iranian/American household in which she was raised—a heritage she has continued to nurture via successive trips to Iran. This affinity for Iranian culture and music is increasingly present in her emergent solo output. An accomplished DJ, Rahill performs live frequently and curates a monthly selection for NTS Radio. Her visual art (including a recent collection of so-called “primitive” crayon portraits, I’m This I’m That I’m in the World) has been exhibited internationally. Her keen aesthetic eye has led her to collaborations in the world of fashion, most notably a live performance of songs from Flowers At Your Feet and Haenim (a track from Sun Songs) for Maryam Nassir Zadeh's SS23 New York Fashion Week show.
The announcement marks Rahill’s first album with Big Dada, the Ninja Tune sub label which relaunched in 2021 as a label run by Black, POC & Minority Ethnic people for Black, POC & Minority Ethnic artists.
Tracklist
- Healing
- I Smile for E
- Tell Me
- From a Sandbox
- Fables (feat. Beck)
- Hesitations
- Gone Astray
- Bended Light
- Ode to Dad
- Rise so I Rose
- Futbol
- Nazila
- Libra Sun
- Note to Self
