Composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid and multidisciplinary artist and musician Naima Nefertari (aka Karlsson) have announced a collaborative new album – a shared inquiry between two artists connected by music, research, and sisterhood. Journey To Nabta Playa will be released on May 2nd, 2025, via Spiritmuse Records.
It is described as a sonic journey through sacred time and space, a powerful meditation on memory, mythology, and ancestral science, drawing deep inspiration from the ancient astrological stone circle of Nabta Playa, nestled in the remote deserts of Nubia.
Dawid and Naima composed, performed and produced the album together—recorded between Dawid’s base in Chicago and Naima’s family home in Tågarp Schoolhouse, Sweden (home of Don and Moki Cherry). Additional parts were captured at Elastic Arts (Chicago) and CoLabyrinth (studio of Kahil El’Zabar), forging strong connections with community, lineage, and sound as ritual.
To coincide with the Spring Equinox, the album’s first single, “Procession of the Equinox,” is released today, inspired in part by Virginia Hamilton’s The People Could Fly:
“They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the people knew magic. And they would walk up on the air like climbin’ up on a gate. And they flew like blackbirds over the fields. Black, shiny wings flappin’ against the blue up there.”
The press explaines that the album tracklist acts as a cosmic narrative arc: from desert summoning and ritual procession, to astral ceremonies, burial, and liberation. Highlights include “Bishmillah”, a rare composition by Don Cherry, and “Burial: String Quartet in E Minor”—a previously unreleased composition by Naima’s uncle, the late David Ornette Cherry. The piece was transcribed and arranged by the artists and recorded with four BIPOC string players, including a 14-year-old violinist in Chicago.
The album, a deluxe 2xLP on 180g black vinyl is presented in a gatefold sleeve with original artwork by Nep Sidhu and inner gatefold painting by Kahil El’Zabar. A 12-page booklet deepens the project’s archival and spiritual layers, featuring essays and reflections from Neneh Cherry, Tej Adeleye, Dr. Adam Zanolini, Imani Mason Jordan, and more.
Pre-Order/Save here: https://spiritmuserecords.lsnto.me/journeytonabtaplaya
