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All Shades of the Sun ep

by Namvula

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

     

  • The gorgeous All Shades tee plus the limited edition double EP vinyl
    (please note - the vinyl ships out around December once both EPs are released!!)
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 10 

      £38 GBP or more 

     

  • This bundle packed with sunshine comes with...well...pretty much everything!
    - Limited edition, signed and numbered vinyl (double EP) (PLEASE NOTE the vinyls are due for shipping end of year after the release of the 2nd EP!)
    - Digital downloads of the 2 EPs being released in 2022 (June / December)
    - All Shades cotton tee (black)
    - Access to acoustic gig + chats (date tba, access link sent closer to date)
    - Access to private advance EP listening sessions (dates tbc, access links sent closer to date)
    - Moi, toi et un café: a (virtual) coffee date
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 5 

      £60 GBP or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Deluxe 12" vinyl version of the All Shades of the Sun EP, with bonus tracks of track remixes. Gorgeous cover artwork by Sophie Bass (see mockup image). Limited edition, signed and numbered. Shipping out February / March.

    Includes unlimited streaming of All Shades of the Sun ep via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 100 

      £20 GBP or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album

    This may well become one of your faves. Super soft, super comfortable, with gorgeous original artwork by Sophie Bass, and screen printed with soul on fair trade organic cotton.
    Available in men's and women's so please write a note with the order to specify.

    Includes unlimited streaming of All Shades of the Sun ep via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      £20 GBP or more 

     

  • Bag + Digital Album

    Made with certified fair trade cotton, this gorgeous tote gives you plenty of space for your 'katundu' (as we call 'stuff' back in Zambia), and is just so visually pleasing, ain't it? A (very!) limited edition All Shades of the Sun run.

    Includes unlimited streaming of All Shades of the Sun ep via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 10  1 remaining

      £18 GBP or more 

     

  • Poster/Print + Digital Album

    The gorgeous A4 All Shades of the Sun artwork, turned into a limited edition art print. A very very limited run, never to be reprinted again.

    Includes unlimited streaming of All Shades of the Sun ep via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 10 

      £40 GBP or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 5 Namvula releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of All Shades of the Sun ep, House of Josephine, Quiet Revolutions, Mukwesu (Tullis Rennie 'Perc Up' mix), and Shiwezwa. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      £22.01 GBP or more (15% OFF)

     

1.
The Fields 05:07
Somewhere between the right and the wrong There’s a field there Somewhere in the eye of the storm There is air Will you come meet me Come and find me there? We can lay it all down There’s a silence there Walkin’ on the knife’s edge So close to fallin’ /The river banks are breakin’ And if those boiling waters come rushing through If it all crashes down Can we find our way back to the shore Can we turn it all around? Chorus Softly softly Will you tread softly ooh, lay it all down Lightly lightly Will you walk lightly Ooh, lay it all down Leave it behind Make your heart light Leave it behind Lay it all down (Now / no) I’m nowhere near a perfect human But here I am Eyes open, arms open I’ll wait, I’ll wait We can find rest here Even for a while We can lay it all down There’s a silence here Cos we’ve been walking on the knife’s edge So close to fallin’ Chorus Softly softly Will you tread softly ooh, lay it all down Lightly lightly Will you walk lightly Ooh, lay it all down Leave it behind Make your heart light Leave it behind Lay it all down
2.
Dust to dust 04:22
3.
4.
Maré 04:16
5.
Soleil 04:12
easy to point the finger easy to lay the blame easy to forget (to forget) that love’s not a given when you and I walk blind-sided that’s a choice that we make: to rather be numb and unseeing than feel all that feeling and you’ll fly like an arrow into the wide and open sky where there are saints and there sinners, there are monsters and there are saints, but none are strangers cos when I look at you you look at me mirrors to each other’s being we’re all multitudes of being And there’s a garden 
Inside of you Where you can tend love If you choose to when life meets the edges of you buffets you bullets flying your way and you’re caught dead centre like a lamb led to the slaughter when sorrow overwhelms by what you see, by what you hear like the day they executed Quinn Jones in a Texas State prison what words will you choose to speak? what will you not say? and I bring you into a wild and raging world of forest fires and drowning islands and where love often seems close to impossible And there’s a garden 
Inside of you Where you can tend love If you choose to Soleil……

about

All Shades of the Sun is not just about seeking answers to past and present conundrums. It’s about paying attention, listening, understanding and choosing to love. It’s about asking the right kind of questions—the ones that lurk in the shadows—and using every ounce of our individual and collective powers to cowrite a better collective script for the future.

The 5-track EP places under a musical lens urgent issues that confront us, including the rise of right-wing nationalism, the climate crisis, the Black Lives Matter movement, consumerism and political apathy. The collection of songs ultimately appeal to our common humanity in these distressed times, calling on our greater capacity for love and tenderness, towards ourselves and each other.

All Shades of the Sun is a collection that asks soul searching questions about life, love, and survival in a strange, chaotic, and wonderful world.

How do we face up to the world in this state of uncertainty? What have we lost and what are we losing in terms of a sense of community and commonality in an increasingly polarized world? What are the choices we have in how we navigate within the world? In the face of it all how do we humans stay soft, keeping love at the centre?

All Shades of the Sun was co-created with bassist and producer Liran Donin, who co-wrote and produced the project. The ideas were birthed and developed remotely, spanning two continents, during the pandemic. It is Namvula’s first fully collaborative release. It is supported by funding from PRS Foundation and Help Musicians, and Namvula’s crowdfunding community.


ABOUT THE TRACKS
The five tracks of All Shades of the Sun pulse with Namvula’s storytelling craft at their core, drawing inspiration from story, from poem, and from global predicament.

Soleil speaks of navigating this ‘wild and raging world’, and of balancing on a tightrope of grief and hope. With a lyrical urgency embedded in rock-fuelled , Namvula calls out to keep love at the centre of this impossible storm.

The sparse, hypnotising feel of the deserts of the north of Africa; the solitude of a night-time seascape: these seep into Maré, making for a mesmerising tribute to the resilience of the heartbroken, and to the things that keep us vulnerable - those things that allow us to keep gambling ‘everything on love’.

Propelled by the grooves of southern Africa, later to be joined by the irrepressible call of the chimurenga guitar, The Crossing / Mbira is a response to the suffering caused by rising nationalist rhetoric and the politicisation of migration, and a reminder of our common humanity: ‘beneath this skin we’re all the same / trying to make sense of this strange, cold world’.

The Fields’ beautifully simple guitar accompaniment of slowly gathering intensity, of us to make necessary and needed spaces of listening, that exist ‘somewhere between the right and the wrong’.

A tender, swirling intimacy imbues Dust to Dust, which laments the disappearance of ceremonies, stories and songs with the passing of elders, and a fraying the threads of our social and cultural tapestries that accompany.

credits

released September 29, 2023

Namvula: vocals
Liran Donin: bass, synth, bv's, claps, guimbri
Yuval Wetzler: drums
Phil Dawson: guitar
Mix & Master: Moshik Kop at NXNE Studios

Lyrics by Namvula Rennie
Music by Namvula Rennie & Liran Donin
Produced by Liran Donin

Album illustration by Sophie Bass
Album cover designed by Alex Rennie at Ten

With thanks to my crowdfunders, Help Musicians UK & PRS Foundation

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Namvula London, UK

"a true original" ~ The Guardian

Namvula's journey is an exploration of cultural intersections and heartfelt storytelling. Weaving together a global soundscape inspired by the deep grooves of Africa, the lyrical sensibility of folk-pop and the improvisational freedom of jazz, her music reflects the nuances of her Zambian-Scottish heritage, and a restlessness born of her diasporic upbringing. ... more

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