*announcing*
IARC0073

Thandi Ntuli with Carlos Niño
Rainbow Revisited

LP, CD & Digital album
out November 17th, 2023

Today we are pleased to announce a new album from the Johannesburg, South Africa based pianist, composer, and singer Thandi Ntuli. The album, called Rainbow Revisited, was created by Ntuli in collaboration with International Anthem recording artist, producer & percussionist Carlos Niño, and will be released on LP, CD, and digitally on Friday November 17th 2023, with cover art by renowned musician Shabaka Hutchings.

Preview & Preorder
Rainbow Revisited

In 2019, Thandi Ntuli traveled to Los Angeles for the first time to perform at The Ford Theatre at a show presented by The Nonsemble. She met the LA-based Carlos Niño in person for the first time during preparations for that performance, and he invited her to do a session with him and engineer Andy Kravitz at Studio 4 West.

As Ntuli recalls in her liner notes for the album: “Having been aware of some of his work… I knew that, with Carlos as producer, the artistic direction of the album would likely take me to a place I’d never considered going. A fact that had me both curious and terrified (as one tends to be when stepping into the unknown)… On that zen-like California afternoon in Andy Kravitz’s cozy studio in Venice Beach, he encouraged me to play around with various iterations of my composition Rainbow. “Try it this way”, “How about adding that?”, “Can you breathe into the mic?”, “What if you focus on the last section?”, and many other explorations that eventually went through a few cuts, edits, yays and nays to become this body of work. Rainbow Revisited was birthed through that session, another session a couple of days later, and a series of many small synchronicities that led up to that moment.”

Niño says: “I was super excited when I heard that Jason Sugars and Kali of The Nonsemble were bringing Thandi to Los Angeles. I was invited to play with her, Siya Makuzeni and Katalyst Collective at The Ford Theatre. I reached out to Thandi to see if she had time and interest to get in the studio while she was here, and she did. We became fast friends, established essential trust, talked through some things, and got to work... I had always envisioned that this would be a full-length album, and we had plenty of recordings; but exactly what it was going to be, and how it was going to flow, took some time and space. In late 2021, I was called by an inner voice to return to this project and finish the album… Luckily, Thandi was into what I sent her and we were able to proceed in our collaboration, that is Rainbow Revisited.”

Preview & Preorder Rainbow Revisited here.

Nomayoyo (Ingoma ka Mkulu)

Available on all digital platforms today, the album’s lead single “Nomayoyo (Ingoma ka Mkhulu)” is a warm, soul-quenching, canonic piano chant played by Ntuli, who recalls: “A particularly special moment for me was when [Carlos] invited me to play something from home, which lent itself to me recording a song originally written by my grandfather that we often sing when at family gatherings.”

Stream “Nomayoyo (Ingoma ka Mkhulu)” here.

About Thandi Ntuli

Exploring the fullness of who she is – who we are – in her personal and collaborative projects, South African composer, pianist, and singer Thandi Ntuli negotiates a wide palette of sound and genre. This approach is a proud embracing of having grown up with the family lore of a classical singer aunt, after whom she is named; an uncle (Selby Ntuli) who was a member of Afro-rock band Harari; and a grandfather (Levi Godlib Ntuli) who – while living with his young family in 1940s Sophiatown, a cultural hub not unlike 1920s Harlem in New York – fostered among his children a tradition of composing, playing and singing music together. This tradition still lives on. Through her work over a hitherto 13-year career, Thandi has carved space for herself, and others seeking home, to fully exist – thereby firmly situating herself and the contemporary South African generation in the musical cannon. Her frank-yet-empathetic and vulnerable gaze on herself, and the world, has birthed a body of work that facilitates our access to our histories, presents and futures by creating in music literature the existence of language, experiences and space that speak to us. For young South Africans and creatives – not least of all, women – Thandi represents a home-going to ourselves, each other and our communities.

Deluxe Vinyl Package

Pot of Gold color vinyl

Rainbow Revisited comes on a 140-gram vinyl LP (pressed by Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST) inside a heavyweight matte jacket, insert sheet, IARC obi strip and dome patterned inner-sleeve.

And, as always, we have a limited edition color vinyl option for the first pressing only, available via our Bandcamp page only, which is 444 copies of *Pot of Gold* color vinyl.

Order a copy via our Bandcamp page today!

Distribution via RedEye for US, Canada, North & South America

This album will also be available on CD and Classic Black Vinyl LP (same package specs as listed above).

Retailers in the United States or Canada or anywhere else inside of North, South and Central America... Please reach out to your sales rep at RedEye Worldwide if you are interested in making wholesale purchases of this album, or any other album in our catalog. Don't yet have a RedEye rep? Please just reach out to us and we'll get you hooked up!

Distribution via !K7 for Europe, UK, Australia, Japan, and ROW

This album will be distributed by our good friends at !K7 and their various territory partners in Europe, UK, Australia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America.

If you are a retailer or store with questions about wholesale or are just looking to get some of our records... we'd like to make things as easy for you as possible, please do not hesitate to reach out!!!