After the launch of Chain of Light, a ‘lost album’ by the legendary Pakistani musician Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in Islamabad, its other launch events will continue in Lahore on Thursday (today) and Karachi on August 31.
The project is a collaboration between Pakistan-based Saiyna Bashir Studios, who have been working on a documentary biopic on the music maestro titled ‘Ustad,’ and English singer and songwriter Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, who produced the lost album in 1990.
The British Council has supported the project, with launch events taking place in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Paris in the lead up to the official album release on September 20. The ‘Ustad’ documentary is slated for release in late 2025.
Chain of Light is an album of previously unheard recordings of Nusrat and his Qawwal party made at Real World Studios in 1990, when the singer was at the height of his vocal capabilities.
Carefully restored from the original analogue tapes, this ‘lost album’ of traditional Qawwals includes a pristine recording of the much-loved classic ‘Ya Allah Ya Rehman’ as well the only known performance of ‘Ya Gaus Ya Meeran.’
The tour will then move to Manchester on September 10 and Birmingham on September 11, before heading to Paris on September 13.
The final pre-release event will take place in London on September 19, culminating in the official album launch on September 20.
