Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Chain of Light (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:46 minutes | 438 MB | Genre: World
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Real World Records
The discovery of an otherwise overlooked reel to reel tape—that sat on a shelf in a decomposing storage unit at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records for decades—led to Chain of Light, an album previously unreleased songs by the late Pakistani singer (and Gabriel’s all-time favorite vocalist) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. They were recorded by the Canadian guitarist and producer Michael Brook when the two collaborated on Musst Musst, a 1990 album that introduced a fusion of Qawwali and Western music to secular listeners. Brook was as surprised as anyone else of the recordings’ existence and helped to prepare them for this release.
Chain of Light is an unexpected and electric reminder of the beauty, stamina and sheer power of Khan and his family of players creating and performing at their best; the descendant of 600 years of Qawwali singers died of cardiac arrest at age 48 in 1997. The four devotional songs here include traditional classics written by Sufi saints such as Peer Meher Ali Shah and his grandson Nasir Udin Nasir, and are sung in Urdu (“Ya Allah Ya Rehman” and “Ya Gaus Ya Miran”), Punjabi (“Aaj Sik Mitran Di”) and Farsi (the concluding “Khabram Raseed Imshab”) over tabla beats. They average over 10 minutes each, which is short compared to the hour-plus qawwals that Khan was used to performing without Brook’s production. It’s an astounding gift from beyond that can be felt across languages, faiths, generations and artificial genre divides. – Tamara Palmer
Tracklist:
1. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Ya Allah Ya Rehman (10:47)
2. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Aaj Sik Mitran Di (09:58)
3. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Ya Gaus Ya Meeran (09:32)
4. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Khabram Raseed Imshab (11:28)
