Dawuna Announces Official Release of ‘Naya’

The Delphic experimental musician launches his own label.

18 · 10 · 2024

Ugandan-American artist Dawuna – aka Ian Mugerwa – will officially release his album ‘Naya’ on digital formats and mastered vinyl on November 15th. It serves as the first release on his own imprint Sun Royalle.

In true Dawuna fashion, the unmastered release first appeared as a shadow dump on Bandcamp late last year. It follows the musician’s self-released 2021 debut ‘Glass Lit Dream’, which steadily gained a cult following. Part autobiography, part allegory, part winding fantasy, the imprints of Dawuna’s lineage seeped into vivid characters on ‘Glass Lit Dream’, veering from the profane to the divine.

The self-composed ‘Naya’ is an extension of the smouldering digital soul of its predecessor, though more organic sounding, running the gamut between R&B, soul, funk and hip-hop filtered through a grainy, low-res lens. Described as a concept record about “black liberation and the contradictions of being a colonised minority in the West”, ‘Naya’ reveals Dawuna as someone from the inside looking out – as a documentarian of his people’s past, present and future.

Coinciding with the album release, Dawuna has shared the title track as a primer. Listen below.

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‘Naya’ Tracklist:

On My Way!

Eddie’s Song

Zaire

Thumpur

Poppin

Old-head

Work

Brian

Diaspora