Rahill is the solo recording project of singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary artist Rahill Jamalifard, perhaps better known as co-founder and vocalist of Brooklyn psych rockers Habibi. Earlier this month, Rahill released Sun Songs, a four-song EP on Ninja Tune imprint Big Dada, a record inspired by the music that she loved growing up. “These songs encompass this feeling of wonder and curiosity that connects me back to my childhood,” she describes. “We grow so incurious with age, I intentionally chose these songs because they evoke that honesty and playfulness that feels infinite, feels timeless, feels familiar.”
On Sun Songs, Rahill covers four songs from the seventies that capture this sense of wonder. There are takes on Shuggie Otis’ ‘Aht Uh Mi Hed,’ updating the soulful funk into a rich and spacious electronic pop song, ‘Growing Pains’ by Yoko Ono, which injects a breezy confidence into Ono’s sedate original, and Arthur Lee’s ‘I Do Wonder’. But it’s single ‘Haenim’ that captures the EP’s ethos most beautifully. A cover of a 1973 song by South Korean artist Kim Jung Mi, Rahill translates the lyrics into Farsi but maintains the sense of glowing positivity and childlike wonder, something best illustrated by the “la la la” chorus that closes it out. It’s the sonic equivalent of closing your eyes and holding your face to the warm sun and letting worries and anxieties melt away.
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“The artists of these songs are pioneers in creating worlds of their own music, worlds where people like myself have the pleasure of stepping into when listening to their records,” Rahill describes. “In recreating something that touches me so personally, I seek to inspire that same inner joy and connection by tapping into a place of vulnerability and honesty. Songs have the ability to free us from what troubles occupy our minds, I want the listener to undress those troubles through listening to these songs.”
Sun Songs is out now via Big Dada. Get it via the Rahill Bandcamp page.
Photo by Travis Trautt