Heems Announces Album, Shares Video for New Song With Vijay Iyer: Watch

Heems has announced his second new album of the year. Veena LP, the follow-up to February’s Lafandar, is out August 23 via Veena Sounds. The lead single, “Manto,” is a collaboration with Vijay Iyer about the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. It arrives with a striking music video, directed by Nardeep Khurmi, that was filmed, in part, at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights, Queens. Watch it below.

Heems worked with one producer, Chicago’s Lapgan, on Lafandar, and he did the same on Veena LP, making the new album’s 11 tracks with Detroit producer Sid Vashi. For the new album, Heems and Vashi wove in voicemails from No Doubt’s Tony Kanal, Indian film director Zoya Akhtar, Swet Shop Boys’ Riz Ahmed, and more.