Heavensouls’ six-song Cantu of the Sower is scheduled for 7 October

Heavensouls, the recording name of Chidi Obialo, has a six-song project called Cantu of the Sower scheduled for release through NTS Recordings on 7 October. In a feature published on 2 October, The Guardian describes a record built around fast rhythmic changes, heavy bass and brass. For listeners approaching the producer’s extensive catalog, it offers a new entry point into a style that has moved across electronic music, jazz and Nigerian musical influences.

What The Guardian heard on Cantu of the Sower

The Guardian’s account is a critical preview, rather than a track-by-track announcement from Obialo or the label. It describes six songs moving between arcade-like sounds, compressed bass, breakbeats and brass. The writer hears abrupt changes of texture and tempo but also moments of warmth within the crowded arrangements. Those descriptions convey the reviewer’s response to the music; they do not establish how the finished project will be received when its scheduled release date arrives.

The preview singles out a sample of civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael, quoting the line, ‘I want my liberation more than I want anything else.’ It places the sample alongside hand percussion and guitar in its account of the project. The quotation gives readers one specific example of the voices and sounds the reviewer heard, although the feature does not provide a full track listing or explain how the sample was selected.

The release date remains a plan: The Guardian lists Cantu of the Sower for 7 October through NTS Recordings. Its feature does not include a new interview in which Obialo explains this particular project, nor a statement from the label about the release. Details about his aims for these six songs should therefore not be inferred from descriptions of his earlier records.

How Heavensouls built a wide-ranging catalog

An April profile in Hearing Things offers a closer account of that range. Obialo told the publication he liked following deep paths through genres and artists, and wanted his own discography to be a ‘rabbit hole’ for listeners. The profile describes releases touching electronic experimentation, spiritual jazz, emo, ambient folk and free jazz. Its report that his Bandcamp page held more than 30 releases was a count made in April, not a verified total for October.

That breadth helps explain why a single genre label does little work here. Hearing Things describes different releases as taking substantially different forms, while The Guardian hears rapid changes within the new project itself. Both accounts are judgments by their respective writers, grounded in the music they discuss. They point to a catalog in which listeners may encounter different combinations of samples, instruments and electronic processing from one project to another.

What Westside Trapped reveals about his earlier work

Earlier in 2026, Obialo released Westside Trapped. The Guardian calls it a more approachable love letter to Nigeria. Hearing Things describes a mix of Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat, psych-rock and sample-heavy hyperpop, linked to Obialo’s reflections on moving from Nigeria to Texas. Those accounts provide context for Cantu of the Sower, but they describe a separate record and should not be read as a statement that the new project repeats its themes.

In a May interview with Nick Caceres and Wavromance, Obialo described Westside Trapped as both a celebration of Nigerian music and a protest album. He named Fela, Odunsi, Ebo Taylor, Exuma, Rokia Traoré and Igwe Aka among the artists he listened to while making it. The interview also shows how deliberate the record’s construction was: he said Louisiana musicians had recorded saxophone and drum parts around 2023, which he later collaged and processed.

Obialo told the same interviewers he approached samples on Westside Trapped more intentionally than usual, citing Bobby V, JPEGMAFIA and a Nigerian radio host. That account gives a concrete example of his method on an earlier release. It does not establish the sources of the sounds on Cantu of the Sower, beyond the Carmichael sample identified by The Guardian. The new project is scheduled for 7 October; the available preview leaves its complete track details and Obialo’s own account of its making open.