Search - Various Artists :: Land of Sufis

Well, American "soul music" it's not, but it is in keeping with the usual clever titling of these Shanachie albums from Asia. This set looks at the musical confluence of cultures that is Sufi, with its Hindi and Islamic roots but with a distinct mesmerizing "soul" made most famous by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The groups here are smaller, closer to a "folk" sound than the sweeping wall of harmoniums and voices of the more famous qawwali. It's best exemplified by Najma and Mumtaz Khanum, the folksy sisters singing with a wild, almost swinging, harmonium. Other tracks feature male and female vocalists, string instruments, and percussion, but all maintain that smallness, the close feeling of a local band playing in a local situation. All the tracks on this set were recorded in Karachi and Lahore and feature performers not heard outside of their home regions. It's all well recorded and effusively annotated. --Louis Gibson