Biography
Nailah Hunter, a Los Angeles-based harpist, composer, and vocalist, crafts poetic fantasy music rooted in nature and fusing new age, folk, and art-pop elements. Her initial recordings, highlighted by the 2020 EP Spells that earned critical praise, leaned ambient and textural, centering on her captivating voice alongside delicate harp textures. Further projects and partnerships followed, among them membership in the supergroup Galdre Visions, before the arrival of Lovegaze, her debut full-length from 2024, which shifted toward trip-hop and R&B compared with prior material.
Raised performing in a church choir while also handling guitar and drums, Hunter pursued vocal studies at CalArts before taking up the harp and committing multiple hours daily to its mastery. Her debut single, “April, Maple, Willow,” appeared in 2019, after which she joined Leaving Records and issued Spells as her first EP the following year. She assembled Galdre Visions alongside labelmates Olive Ardizoni of Green-House, Ami Dang, and Diva Dompé of Yialmelic Frequencies, resulting in a self-titled EP that same year. Additional collaborations included the single “High” with John Carroll Kirby and Eddie Chacon, while solo tracks “Black Valhalla” and “Bassin Bleu” surfaced separately. Her second EP, Quietude, arrived in 2021 and contained renditions of Donovan’s “Guinevere” and Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host”; she simultaneously developed Sleeping Sea through work with the generative soundscape application Endel.
During 2022 Hunter unveiled the jazzy, trip-hop-leaning “Forest Dark” together with “Forest Dwelling,” a 32-minute ambient composition issued via Longform Editions. She composed her debut album while in England alongside producer Cicely Goulder and collaborator Ben Lukas Boysen. Released on Fat Possum Records in 2024, Lovegaze presented more elaborate arrangements and assured vocal delivery than her preceding output.
Raised performing in a church choir while also handling guitar and drums, Hunter pursued vocal studies at CalArts before taking up the harp and committing multiple hours daily to its mastery. Her debut single, “April, Maple, Willow,” appeared in 2019, after which she joined Leaving Records and issued Spells as her first EP the following year. She assembled Galdre Visions alongside labelmates Olive Ardizoni of Green-House, Ami Dang, and Diva Dompé of Yialmelic Frequencies, resulting in a self-titled EP that same year. Additional collaborations included the single “High” with John Carroll Kirby and Eddie Chacon, while solo tracks “Black Valhalla” and “Bassin Bleu” surfaced separately. Her second EP, Quietude, arrived in 2021 and contained renditions of Donovan’s “Guinevere” and Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host”; she simultaneously developed Sleeping Sea through work with the generative soundscape application Endel.
During 2022 Hunter unveiled the jazzy, trip-hop-leaning “Forest Dark” together with “Forest Dwelling,” a 32-minute ambient composition issued via Longform Editions. She composed her debut album while in England alongside producer Cicely Goulder and collaborator Ben Lukas Boysen. Released on Fat Possum Records in 2024, Lovegaze presented more elaborate arrangements and assured vocal delivery than her preceding output.
Albums
Singles
