Global Music Column – September

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party – Chain of Light

The year 1990 was a pivotal one for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Since his appearance at Womad festival five years prior, the Pakistani qawwali singer had been gaining notoriety in the west for the raw, buffeting power of his remarkable voice and his nimble, rapid-fire vocalisations – often within the same line of ancient Sufi poetry. In 1989, he began to depart from Sufi tradition, improvising vocals for Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, and in 1990 would release Mustt Mustt, a landmark qawwali fusion record that blended Sufi poems with producer Michael Brook’s dark palette of slap bass, reverb-laden percussion and electric guitar.

Yet, a few months before that crossover record, Khan recorded four traditional qawwali compositions with Brook that never saw the light of day. Recently rediscovered and remastered, the resulting album Chain of Light – released 27 years after his death at the age of 48 in 1997 – provides an extraordinary example of Khan’s voice at the height of his powers.

Read the review in the Guardian.

[This piece was published on 06/09/24]