With a debut album out now titled Ginhawa, Ruhiya has evoked all the beauty with this culture-packed musical endeavor. Please read on for an in-depth look at the record, in addition to a background on this artist.

Working closely with award-winning multi-instrumentalist Zayn Mohammed, Ruhiya has just delivered this impeccable collaboration record called Ginhawa. Meaning “breath”, its original inspiration came directly from Ruhiya’s “matriarchal Visayan (Filipino) roots and explores themes of nature, spirit, dreams, the feminine, and love”. Through infinite passion, emotion, and a vast use of instrumentation, there’s simply something for everyone to love here from start to finish.

The initial goal of this record was to knock out a few songs, but after seeing success and gaining positive feedback, it spiraled into the debut album that is now Ginhawa. Displaying a sort of East meets West in terms of fusion and soundscapes, we found the start to finish listen to feel ultimately mellow and have calming properties, sort of like you’re floating on a cloud while the music carries you along. Says Ruhiya on the record’s background, “This album weaves together dreams, the feminine, spirit, and nature, inspired by pre-colonial Philippines and Animist cosmology".

As a singer, songwriter, musician, and sound healing practitioner, Ruhiya has truly put all of herself into this record and it 100% shows within the first minute of “Kanta Sa Damgo”. We particularly liked the opener being a spoken word track as it sets a nice base, but honestly it only gets better from there. The pulsating rhythms, bombastic drums, and the sheer joy emanating through each song is what will have us coming back and sincerely looking forward to a follow up. We don’t even quite know what label we would put on it genre-wise, but it barely matters knowing that it’s something completely unique of its own. There are moments that it perfectly opens up into focused instrumental solos and others where it feels downtempo, but one thing is for sure that Ginhawa is wonderfully cohesive and keeps the listener guessing.

Plain and simple, this is a record we’re recommending and an artist worth further exploring. Go ahead and click those links below to listen, follow along, and to keep up with everything else on the way.

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Ruhiya delivers a completely diverse & original debut, "Ginhawa"