Biography
Sadaf H. Nava works across multiple disciplines as a producer, violinist, vocalist, DJ, and performance artist. Under the name SADAF she fuses these skills into music that is abrasive yet hypnotic, confronting themes of constraint, anxiety, and body imagery while blending industrial noise, free jazz, reggaeton, and Middle Eastern music with her gripping vocal improvisations. Born in Iran and raised in Canada, she started creating art as a toddler through drawing and later expanded into painting and sculpture. Following her graduation from art school she lacked resources for a studio space and therefore gravitated toward performance art for its immediate and political qualities. Her performances began during her time in Montreal, where the local noise and D.I.Y. scenes encouraged her to reclaim spontaneity and imperfection that childhood violin lessons had suppressed.
She pursued performance studies at NYU and built a presence in New York’s art and music communities by delivering DJ sets across numerous clubs and museums as well as staging a series of shows alongside Arto Lindsay. Her first single, “C.F.C.,” appeared in May 2014 on Hoss Records with co-production from the label’s owner, R. Mexico. “Man of Me” came next in 2015, while SADAF reached wider acclaim with the 2016 release “Stillness,” a hectic fusion of footwork, ragga, jungle, and found sounds. In March 2017 she issued the visual mixtape Drown It, and several weeks afterward she released “Let It Burn,” the lead track from her debut EP Shell. The project, issued through Outside Insight in August 2017, serves as a conceptual piece centered on a creatively blocked young filmmaker.
She pursued performance studies at NYU and built a presence in New York’s art and music communities by delivering DJ sets across numerous clubs and museums as well as staging a series of shows alongside Arto Lindsay. Her first single, “C.F.C.,” appeared in May 2014 on Hoss Records with co-production from the label’s owner, R. Mexico. “Man of Me” came next in 2015, while SADAF reached wider acclaim with the 2016 release “Stillness,” a hectic fusion of footwork, ragga, jungle, and found sounds. In March 2017 she issued the visual mixtape Drown It, and several weeks afterward she released “Let It Burn,” the lead track from her debut EP Shell. The project, issued through Outside Insight in August 2017, serves as a conceptual piece centered on a creatively blocked young filmmaker.
Albums
Singles
