Nailah Hunter
As the daughter of a Belizean pastor, Nailah Hunter began her musical journey in the church where she played drums, guitar and sang in the choir. She continued on to study music at CalArts, where she studied vocal performance and was given her first harp lesson. Associating the instrument with fantasy, psychedelia, and dream worlds, Hunter became an immediate devotee, locking herself in a room for six hours a day to practice the instrument.
In addition to creating commissioned soundscapes for Union Station in Los Angeles and Nike’s US headquarters, the California-based composer has been recording mystical folk and ambient-inspired music, releasing a series of singles and two EPs on Leaving Records: Spells and Quietude. Now signed to Fat Possum, Hunter released her debut full-length Lovegaze in 2024, an enthralling album that draws listeners into her enchanting cosmology. The album received critical acclaim, with The Times calling Hunter “the missing link between Alice Coltrane and Enya” and KEXP describing it as “spellbinding R&B-pop and smoldering trip-hop…a beautiful fusion of lushly textured productions.”
