A single released on 24 April 2026, one track long.
Nirodha is the meditative project of Daniel Espada, a Madrid-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and kirtan facilitator. His work runs along two threads: a wordless one for sleep and stillness, and a voice-and-mantra one built on chant, kirtan and voice with tanpura. Pt. 2: Stillness belongs to the first. It is part of The Night Sanctuary, which Espada's own sources describe as an album in progress, released one piece at a time rather than dropped whole.
That context matters. This is a single with a single track, so it should be heard as one chapter in a slowly accumulating work, not a standalone statement. The "Pt. 2" in the title says as much. The project name comes from the Sanskrit for cessation, the stilling of mental noise, and this release is where that idea is most plainly stated in the title: Stillness.
Nirodha's palette is native flute, classical guitar, harmonium, tanpura and voice. Espada chose each because it can hold a single tone without demanding attention. The Night Sanctuary thread centers on native flute, so that is the sound to expect here, though I'd treat the exact instrumentation of this single as something to discover by listening rather than something promised on paper.
The aesthetic is subtractive. Espada records alone, mostly at night, with whatever instrument gets out of the way fastest, and he asks what can be removed rather than what can be added. Expect long tones, little harmonic movement, and silence used as a compositional choice. There is no beat, no lush reverb, no orchestral swell. The mood is not dreamy in the way much sleep music is. It is closer to spare and attentive, like a room with the lights low and nothing on the walls.
Because this release has one track, there is no list of highlights to offer, and I won't invent a title beyond the release name itself. What can be said is what makes the piece worth your time:
- It doesn't ask to be followed. The instrument holds a tone and lets you rest in it rather than tracking a melody. Espada's idea that stillness is something you remember, not something you achieve, shows up here as a practical matter: the music doesn't set a task.
- It leaves room. The pauses are part of the piece. Listeners who treat silence as dead air will miss what the track is doing.
- It fits the whole. Heard alongside the other pieces released so far under The Night Sanctuary, it reads as one more small, deliberate step in the same direction.
Nirodha's broader work sits near the Hindu devotional tradition of kirtan, and Espada approaches it as a composer rather than as a traditional scholar. The bio names no teacher or lineage, and it would be wrong to assign one. This wordless single is not kirtan: there is no chant and no call-and-response. What it shares with his mantra work is the underlying logic, in which sound is used to quiet the thinking mind through resonance and repetition.
Its closer neighbors are in the contemplative and sleep-music space, though it stands apart from most of that field. Where much ambient sleep music relies on washes of texture, Nirodha's approach is more austere, closer to a single held note than to a soundscape.
This single is for the listener who is tired, wired, or both: someone whose mind keeps running after the day is done. It suits people who already use meditation, yoga or breathwork and want something that supports the practice without decorating it. It also suits anyone who finds most sleep music too busy or too sweet.
It is not for everyone. If you need rhythm, forward motion, or emotional catharsis, the sparseness will feel static. If you want the communal heat of kirtan, look to Nirodha's voice-led material instead. And it is not designed as passive background listening. It rewards patience.
Choose the evening, ideally late, close to the hours in which Espada records. Dim the lights and put the phone out of reach. Headphones are worth using if you want the quiet details of breath and tone, but a small speaker in a dark room works too, since Espada's live practice favors minimal amplification and intimate space.
Listen once while sitting or lying still, without trying to do anything. If sleep comes, that's fine. If it doesn't, notice what happens in the gaps between tones. Then, if you want more, move on to the other pieces in The Night Sanctuary and hear how this chapter sits among them.
You can find the release on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3lGkDP2nk8JYb67MUe8vMi
