Disc review | A record that had been forgotten for more than 30 years appeared from the world music superstar

Qawwali / Album

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Chain of Light. Real World.

★★★★★

World music for a big star By Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Chain of Light -album is a small miracle.

In 1990, the Pakistani singer made two albums at the same time.

From the second disc, Mustt from Musttbecame an excellent fusion record with rock influences. It came out in 1990 and sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Traditional Chain of Light instead, it was forgotten in the archives. It also remained there after the death of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in 1997 at the age of just 48.

It wasn’t until 2021 that the album was found in the record company’s archives in connection with the move.

Plate offers no surprises about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, but certainly no disappointments either.

The singer is on the threshold of her greatest international fame and at her best. The acclaimed voice is supple, deep and nuanced.

There are no fast pop rallies on the record.

There are only four songs, but the length of the record is the same as a normal LP record, about 40 minutes.

The ten-minute songs are relatively short: traditionally, songs in the musical style of qawwali last 15 to 30 minutes, often longer.

in the 14th century Originated in India, qawwali is Sufi religious music.

Sufism, on the other hand, is a trend in Islam that emphasizes mysticism, joy and enlivening. They really belong in qawwal, whose frenetic going is easy even for an outsider to get involved in.

Qawwali spread to Western countries in the 1980s as a world music phenomenon.

Its biggest stars were precisely Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Sabrina brothers. He released both albums Peter Gabriel’s founded record company Real World, and both give concerts in Finland as well.

The biggest qawwali stars were Pakistani.

In the past, the biggest center of the music style was in Delhi, but when the former British colony was divided into two, the focus shifted to Pakistan.

On the disc the group of eight singers and musicians played together seamlessly.

At first, the use of musical instruments was prohibited in qawwal, but tabla and dholak drums and hand accordion have accompanied the song for a long time. Here, too, they brighten the atmosphere wonderfully.

The ecstatic nature of the music draws you in the same way as American Gospel at its strongest, even though the styles are not musically related.

If the religiosity of the music frightens a secular or non-religious listener, the message is conveniently hidden in the Urdu language.

When you compare those born at the same time Black Black and Chain of Lightthe electric guitar-driven fusion sounds a little surprisingly milder than the more traditional qawwali.

Without the familiar electric guitar, the qawwali sounds more fascinating, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s amazing voice can rule the whole thing in peace. Chain of Light lift to another world.