Arooj Aftab

The album I've been most bowled over by this year (so far) is Vulture Prince by composer-singer Arooj Aftab: https://aroojaftab.bandcamp.com/album/vulture-prince.

Some previous discussion here: Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2021 Thread (Often African bands).

The description on her Bandcamp page captures the unique blend of styles: "Aftab’s liminal sound floats between classical minimalism and new age, Sufi devotional poetry and electronic trance, jazz structures and states of pure being."

But I think that makes it sound much more ethereal than it is. The record sounds very live, very corporeal in terms of voices, breaths, fingers on strings. Her presence is intimate and immediate; as graceful as it is you're not drifting through a dreamspace. It's also deeply emotional, as the rather good Pitchfork review gets into.

I'd talk about some stand-out tracks—and I can't not highlight "Last Night," a gently skanking & dubby rendition of a Rumi poem—but the whole thing is organically brilliant.

I'm going to spend more time with this before checking out her previous work, but rapturous appreciation posts of all kinds welcome.

heard a track from this on WFMU a month or so ago and thought it sounded amazing. bummed the lp is sold out, but glad to be reminded of it, will listen now.

I sampled the first few minutes of the opening track after reading p4k’s review the other day and immediately added the album to my list.

Says the LP willl be back in stock in a month. The clip I heard gave me the same initial feeling as Julie Byrne. Is that way off overall?

I don't know who Byrne is! Give me a song and I'll report back

https://badabingrecords.bandcamp.com/track/sleepwalker

I mean, I only heard a few seconds of the song Mohabbat and my brain made a connection.

thanking you for this thread, rob! was thinking of making one myself after I listened to the album yesterday, but I’m happy you came through first

Evan: oh I do recognize this cover. I would say there is definitely a bit of this kind of thing going on (esp in the song you tried), but Aftab also sings in Urdu and draws on ghazals and Sufi poetry and in general doesn't sound too songwriter-y

breastcrawl: my pleasure! and cheers to calzino for mentioning it

it's lovely and versatile.

did not know i needed "Dub Sufi" but hey

what a voice she has as well, it's an incredible album.

I plan to check out her earlier work, but were people already following her? I hadn't heard her name until you mentioned it calzino

someone I follow on twitter mentioned her in his weekly roundup of new releases. I'd never heard of her before.

she was featured as an album of the day on bandcamp daily, that's how i found her. i usually check out those articles and if the description moves me i give it a shot

https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/arooj-aftab-vulture-prince-review

i'd venture to say her album is closer to album of the year than album of the day haha *rimshot*

Adding to all the praise. Been a remarkable year in music, really.

ILM Archival Service

from the Hallelujah Poll, poll Halleluja.... poll:

she ended 7th (along with a host of others)

Poll Results
Option Votes
1.Jeff Buckley 15
3.John Cale 12
2.Leonard Cohen 10
19.Happy Mondays 6
22.Bono 2
8.Rufus Wainwright 2
40.Arooj Aftab 1
[...]
― Mark G, vrijdag 26 november 2010 12:59

a friend of mine just played drums with her on a gig (not a meshell gig, backing up arooj aftab...anyone go to that?)
― this is unusual for batman. (Jordan), woensdag 2 november 2011 15:04

The NYC club listing below is not clear--are they playing Pakistani music?
“An incredible incredible stupendous stupendous group of humans will walk and run and dream and weep through an evening of songs by Arooj Aftab and Grey Mcmurray.
The Sea Gazing Family Band for the night of October 29th 2011 will be:
Arooj Aftab
Mathias Kunzli
Joshua Valleau
Conor Elmes
Norman Vladimir
Grey Mcmurray
and Meshell Ndegeocello”
― curmudgeon, woensdag 2 november 2011 15:24

pakistani jazz?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLvAAzEOqM0
― this is unusual for batman. (Jordan), woensdag 2 november 2011 15:43

Al Sarah and the Nubatones // Arooj Aftab // DJ Ushka
A night of ultimate contemporary world and roots fusion sounds! [...]
Arooj Aftab will perform a duo set of acoustic, pre-partition, sufi inspired south asian semi classical music with Guitarist and Co-Composer Bhrigu Sahni.
The show is at a secret location on Saturday Sept 29th in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. You must RSVP, attendance is by invitation only. Send a message to alsarah5✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ and you will recieve a confirmation email with time and exact location.
Not a good look to miss this, so see you there!!
― EVERYONE COOKING SCMABLED EGGS,CHEESE WITH TOASTER!! (forksclovetofu), vrijdag 28 september 2012 20:28

April 28 – Arroj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shazad Ismaily
https://www.joespub.com/Tickets/Calendar/PlayDetailsCollection/Joes-Pub/2019/Arooj-Aftab-Vijay-Iyer--Shazad-Ismaily-Trio/?SiteTheme=JoesPub

August 7 – Jesus Carmona / Arooj Aftab – Dance - FREE
http://www.lincolncenter.org/out-of-doors/show/jesus-carmona-and-arooj-aftab

Listening to "Mohabbat" on Bandcamp...it's nice. It seems like I was sent a promo, so I'll check out the whole album.

I'm halfway through the first song and it's amazing. Though its different, it hits similar spots for me as that Alabaster DePlume record.

Adore this album

"Mohabbat": all that balancing on the acoustic guitar cycle, the vocal notes occasionally venturing, returning closer to the hub (yes also thinking of bicycle guitar): makes me think of 60s Joni and Fairport, like if they did another otherwise elusive JM song after "Eastern Rain"---yeah this and "Last Night" especially make me think of DePlume, and a production by Solid Air-era Martyn, eventually veering toward One World, if he were directing say Danny Thompson and Terry Cox--but the singer, confident as ever, never gets lost in the pile-on of my associations. Lots of other stuff on her bandcamp...
April 28 – Arroj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shazad Ismaily Tell me this is on YouTube, or somewhere.

"Mohabbat" is also reminding me of how "Eastern Rain" and some other things on FC's What We Did On Our Holidays always had me thinking of East-West trade routes involving maybe the Arctic Circle, pre-Ice Age, say (thinking of that during Weed Age)

wow

wow wow wow wow wow

booming post :)

I listened to this on long drive and it was very meditative. It put my mom to sleep (which she needed, lol).

oh wow this is astounding

Good interview here: https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/arooj-aftab-vulture-prince-interview/

Of note: she's recorded a to-be-released album with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily as Love In Exile

I had no idea she was an Abida Parveen protégée of sorts. Now there's a legit lineage!

Goddam

Program

Love in Exile performs as one continuous hour-long set.

Pictures help us to live in complete possession of our sense of sight…[they] send us back to life and to the other arts with the ability to see beauty all around us.
—Duncan Phillips, 1926

Join us from the gallery exploring the senses in our exhibition Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century, for a transformative, hour-long musical meditation from composer/pianist Vijay Iyer, vocalist Arooj Aftab, and bassist Shazad Ismaily. Love in Exile creates lush, cathartic, and ritualistic soundscapes that activate visual works in the gallery by Leo Villareal, Malissia Pettaway, Rudolf De Crignis, and Richard Diebenkorn.

This performance will be broadcast on this event page and is free with registration. Once you have registered, return to this page on Sunday, May 9, scroll down to the section “Watch the Stream” and enter the password provided to you at registration. The performance will be available to view On-Demand.

https://www.phillipscollection.org/event/2021-05-09-vijay-iyer-arooj-aftab-and-shahzad-ismaily-love-exile

https://www.phillipscollection.org/sites/default/files/styles/feature_extra_large_no_crop_1200_/public/2021-04/wide%20final%20photo.jpg?itok=jdDLs0aT

You don't (and apparently no longer can) register to stream---I couldn't get the cart etc. to respond, so just clicked on the Vimeo, and here we go---already sounds awesome.

Three pieces, in total a little over 53 minutes. First is the longest, slowest, zoneist, zzzz-est for me, penultimately, but I woke up for final coalescence---main thing here is, this really is a group, and everybody gets enough room, but Iyer goes a bit far into the weeds sometimes---however, on the second piece, about 24 minutes in, he switches to electric piano, and the whole thing is a little faster, more discernibly developmental---on the third one, he goes back to the acoustic, Chopinesque, then she comes in sooner than on the second, he goes to both hands on the left side, with pedals, and Ismaily's Moog bass drone is ominous--she reaches some peaks all through, without ever losing her cool.
I'll check their album for sure, but glad to have hers first.

O now this is the shit (occasionally seems like some instruments other than listed, but might be how the listed are used---wouldn't swear she's not the flute, also, like it says, A masterful expression of lyrical and acoustic soul, tripped out through analog voltage and experimental digital filters.)
credits
released March 9, 2015

Bird Under Water
Written, Arranged and Produced by Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab - Vocals
Jörn Bielfeldt - Drums/Percussion
Mario Carrillo - Contra-Bass
Bhrigu Sahni - Acoustic/Electric Guitar
Magda Giannikou - Accordion on tracks 2, 3 and 4
Sonny Singh - Trumpet on tracks 2 and 5
Baqir Abbas - Bansuri on track 1
Rakae Jamil - Sitar on track 3

Tracks 2, 3 and 5 co-written with Bhrigu Sahni
Mixed and Mastered by Jeremy Loucas
Engineered by Joshua Valleau and Alex Syner
Album Art by Anum Awan and Yikun Liang
https://aroojaftab.bandcamp.com/album/bird-under-water

Kind of a DePlume vibe, or related appeal,anyway, but maybe earlier in the day or evening, and a little more spare?
https://alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com/album/to-cy-lee-instrumentals-vol-1

Sorry, meant to link re Carlos Niño & Friends on Rolling Jazz, but Arooj fans might dig that album too.

certainly digging it

she’s on obama's summer playlist lol

prob freaking out a lotta rightwingnuts who have no idea who she is

Suroor might be my highlight from Vulture Prince, but there are moments in every song where she stops me in whatever I was doing. I also love how she manages to jump from orchestral to reggae to harp-folk to post-rock delicate soundscapes in an otherwise very consistent style. Suroor sounds like a Mande-Arabic fusion, in a pleasant unplaceable global way that I guess is the new platonic ideal of world music.

there are moments in every song where she stops me in whatever I was doing

I hadn't listened to this in a little while, but I put it on while in mountains with some friends for the first time in a year and everyone was totally spellbound. It's really powerful

yeah you gotta be careful where and when you put it on haha

it’s firmly a “don’t drive with this” album for me, along with prefab sprout’s i trawl the megahertz

I wonder how much Obama pays his playlist consultants

and are they hiring? I always feel mildly owned when those lists drop lol

do we have a driving music thread? vc's post reminds me of a friend who would drive to stuff like Stars of the Lid and Windy & Carl that would 100% result in my death if I tried it

Heard this for the first time yesterday and was utterly entranced. By necessity, so much of my listening these days is done while doing other things - working, cooking, chores, etc. It is rare that an artist so completely pulls me out of my immediate focus and compels me to listen the way this did from the opening track.

best album of the year, imo

nommed for best new artist at the grammys lol

that's what the obama co-sign will do for you

LMAO

also up for best global album i think.

she's on my year-end list, great album

same

vinyl just went up on bandcamp i guess... last batches sold fast

yeah you gotta be careful where and when you put it on haha

it’s firmly a “don’t drive with this” album for me, along with prefab sprout’s i trawl the megahertz

― bezos did the dub (voodoo chili), Wednesday, July 21, 2021 6:17 AM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

off topic but i find this comment funny because I actually associate I Trawl the Megahertz with driving (specifically, during the first wave of the pandemic, when it felt like the world was collapsing)

anyways, just listened to this record and it's indeed lovely

yeah it's def one of my favorites this year, I can listen forever

Me too, discovered through this thread in April. Haven't come across any mention of it anywhere else.

This album is great, I'm so behind keeping up with stuff, so ... thanks Grammys?

not sure why mohabbat seems to be considered the standout on this record.

meanwhile, saans lo has to be one of the most transcendental songs I've heard in years. the production and instrumentation on it remind me a lot of the title track from jim o'rourke's eureka

I agree it's not an obvious standout

believe "Last Night" was the lead single

I think it's just that Mohabbat's finger picking give it pace and a familiarity to a western audience. Saans Lo is gorgeous but works better as an album track than "the one" to represent her to a new listener.

i'm on a serious Arooj Aftab and Myriam Gendron kick.

who else sounds like them? long, slow, gorgeous songs ... language doesn't matter.

looking forward to seeing her at Coachella! one of my favorite discoveries on the lineup.

if you want arooj adjacent stuff (at least geographically) this is a festival my buddy did and it's packed with good artists
https://www.habibi-festival.com/

who else sounds like them? long, slow, gorgeous songs ... language doesn't matter.

first Sharon Van Etten album
julie doiron's desormais
maybe Sandro Perri's Tiny Mirrors
Ian William Craig - A Turn Of Breath
first couple Weather Station albums
Agnes Obel maybe

Qareeb (1987) by Najma

o yes corrs I think your suggestion is relevant as hell. Also don't miss the earlier music on Arooj's Bandcamp.

Mahsa Vahdat albums plus her duet one with now late blues-soul singer Mighty Sam MMcClain

nice will check

xp thanks dow, yeah that's a real gem

Bonus track with Anoushka Shankar which will be on the Deluxe edition of Vulture Prince
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibDff_3V_5E
Udhero Na

Arooj describes it as a track dearest to her heart, written in 2005 and never released. It translates to "Please undo" and refers to the "fleeting emotional moment when the thought of someone from a very old and ‘passed’ relationship just pops into your head”.

Maybe everyone knew that song already, but I listened to it again in the bath two days ago after a full day in bed nursing what proved to be not the flu but an infection, and thinking of the dear friend I lost three weeks ago, and it was stunningly beautiful and appropriate for grief, it resonated on the wall and slowed down time and brought the introspective outside.

bought a couple tracks on bandcamp today and included a message asking what her set time will be at coachella :) i'm sure it will be early in the day but we'll see.

She was nominated for best new artist Grammy, but just lost to Olivia Rodrigo

Maaan---not surprising of course, but

I thought it was just cool that they showed her! Very clearly!

Arooj won Best Global Music Performance. best in the world!!! they had to give Olivia something

A highly competitive category, full of highly respected legendary nominees. I am humbled and grateful for this win. Making a deeply personal and crossover music, in Urdu, and being seen for it… feels like a breakthrough. thank you AND congratulations ❤️ pic.twitter.com/FXyth4w9hK

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) April 5, 2022

Arooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooj

She and her band were fantastic at Big Ears, even as an already-fan I was impressed.

i'm on a serious Arooj Aftab and Myriam Gendron kick.

who else sounds like them? long, slow, gorgeous songs ... language doesn't matter.

― alpine static, Thursday, February 17, 2022 8:41 PM (one month ago)

Julie Byrne! Don't know how I didn't make that connection earlier.

what is Julie Byrne up to, for pete's sake

not to take away from Arooj ... super stoked for her, and that tweet is awesome

Congratulations to the sensational @arooj_aftab on being the first Pakistani singer to win a Grammy.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/XFWPGKK1il

— Jemima Goldsmith (@Jemima_Khan) April 5, 2022

Anyone in Chicago want 2 tix for tonight's show? Happy to give them away. Wife got COVID and hate for them to go to waste.

Anyone see a show? Going up to Toronto the week and excited to catch her... at what seems to be the only non festival gig she's got booked.

I saw her live last month in a wonderful setting: a church in Amsterdam on a fully light summer evening. It was just her and two instrumentalists: Maeve Gilchrist on celtic harp and Petros Klampanis on double bass. Both play on some of the tracks of Vulture Prince, but here they carried all of the music, and it was sensational.

https://www.festivalinfo.nl/img/review/big/7848/7uhske9pwbnhlap3ty.jpg

I had expected a chamber music kind of performance, similar to her recent-ish Tiny Desk concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUYJ8_tBSSQ

…and I would have been totally fine with that, but it was nothing of the kind.
It would have been wonderful to hear Arooj sing live within any setup, her voice is amazing, but this bass-harp combo gave an extra dimension to her sound: it added grit and earthiness to the ethereal, making things so much more dynamic. It wasn’t just the bass that did this, mind, it was the interplay. harp and bass were rocking and rolling together, throbbing, percussive, droning - at one point it felt like they were taking off into the stratosphere and carrying us along with them. All the while, Arooj was treating herself to red wine and the audience to red roses. A mesmerizing experience.

This is the same setup, at a (Dutch) festival last October, but here the two instrumentalists are much more restrained still: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPRuWiI2ZPQ

She seems to perform in ever-changing formations tho - clips from other recent performances show her with bass and guitar (at Sintra’s Palácio da Pena - speaking of amazing locations!) and guitar and violin (at Glastonbury).

saw her at Roskilde Festival, wonderful set, Gyan Riley on guitar (doing some wonderful flamenco type shredding) and Petros Klampanis on double bass

kind of a weird stage presence, she insisted on us not taking things too seriously

Woah, didn't even know she was touring... looks like Toronto show is sold out... have fun!

super excited to be seeing her in Montreal tomorrow night!

she insisted on us not taking things too seriously

She was genuinely stunning last night. Her voice is incredible—the album doesn't quite do it justice really. Reminded me that when I played Vulture Prince for my partner her first reaction was "you have to see this kind of music live" (meaning, more or less, qawwali/ghazals), and she was right!

The lineup was Gyan Riley on guitar and for one song some kind of electric...idk, something in the sitar family tree (which I wouldn't have minded hearing more of), and Darian Donovan Thomas on violin, which he also made sound like a synth sometimes. Sounds like the same as Glastonbury. They were both great, though if I had to complain about anything, Riley got a bit more of the spotlight than necessary I felt, a few times I got itchy waiting for Aftab to sing again while he soloed. She has a dryly funny stage presence too

Toronto had those 2 guys and Maeve Gilchrist on harp, too. Great set. The audience was extra hott though - big reactions for every single solo. Neat to see her in a 600 capacity club... wonder if that'll be happening much more, now signed to a bigger label and whatnot.

Wow---makes me wonder how far into a fairly high-profile Western Hemisphere career/possible stardom Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan might have gone, if he'd lived longer---she's got the advantage of (pretty much, of not altogether) starting her career in the West, in Brooklyn, I take it, and her (pretty much, if not altogether) Western Hemisphere line-ups are of her own choosing, it seems, dunno how much choice Khan had in recording with Michael Brook and so on, although there were several collections of the uncut, prewesternized voyages in the 90s: Shanachie's Greatest Hits, for example, and their wilder release, Intoxicated Spirit omg. I dunno about the Real World stuff, never listened much, but remember liking his cut w Eddie Vedder(!) in the midst of Dead Man Walking onscreen, however it may have fared on the soundtrack album. Devotional and Love Songs and Rapture had some okay Western sounds; there was maybe just one rock-ish track on the latter.

Riley got a bit more of the spotlight than necessary I felt, a few times I got itchy waiting for Aftab to sing again while he soloed

have to agree, good as he was

some kind of electric...idk, something in the sitar family tree

I also wonder what it was, here's a bad photo I took, maybe someone can help identify the instrument:

https://i.imgur.com/PuMCQcW.png

Ooh that is actually cooler looker than I realized in a dark & neon-lit club (Aftab made fun of the lighting at one point; I felt kind of bad for the tech, but they were pulling out all the stops to an absurd degree).

Still not sure what it is--I said "sitar family" because iirc it made a sustained, droning noise rather than a something more lute-like. It could be a really simplified veena maybe? I can't remember what his hands were doing while playing it though

I saw her last night in Ljubljana. Beautiful music, crystal clear sound. She could tone down the between-song banter a bit, which I felt broke the spell at times. By all means talk to the audience but I found some of her anecdotes rambling and not as funny as she thought they were. I just wanted them to get on with the music. Wonderful musicians [guitar & violin] + voice, though, obviously.

lol i loved her banter but can see what you mean

I like the idea, as mentioned on here upthread, that she likes to put her audience at ease. But some of her gags and stories were just lame or didn't hit their targets. Oh well, sorry to dwell on that aspect because it was otherwise a very special gig.

I do agree it doesn't really benefit the music

maybe some of it is nervousness

but the music's so good it doesn't really matter

Here's a brief interview with her in this 'culture news' report on Slovenian TV, in which she comes across really well: https://4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/kultura/174891899 [I'm in the background briefly!]

I love what she says about connecting with the music even though you don't understand the language. I love the idea of someone singing with gentle power in (what is to me) a completely unknown language.

I see what you mean, giraffe, but I saw her last Saturday in Katowice and personally didn't mind her stage banter at all (though she didn't really tell actual anecdotes, more just was vibing with the energy in the room).

TBH it did initially take me out of it to see her being this down-to-earth chill performer pouring herself wine on stage, joking, and taking a selfie video with the audience but I suppose it was only because I had no reference point—I had never seen or heard her speak before, only listened to Vulture Prince a lot since last year, and probably subconsciously projected the heavy emotions in the songs onto the person behind them. So maybe I half-expected a solemn mystic singing behind a haze of smoke—but that's obviously on me!

Actually, now that I think about it, her warmth and laidback attitutde provided a nice counterpoint to the gut punches served repeatedly in the songs (the performance of the actual music was absolutely top notch). She seemed genuinely lovely and like a cool person to hang out with, her band members (Gyan Riley on guitar and Darius Donovan Thomas on violin) too.

Lots of good points,ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ [How do you pronounce this?]. When someone you've never seen or heard live before walks up to the mic you have no idea what kind of person they're going to be and there's a measure of trepidation all round. When she started talking I was taken aback by the contrast between the solemnity of the music and the chilled comedy of the performer between songs (she was unbelievably relaxed at the mic). Maybe we were unlucky with the package of jokes we got... :)

reminds me of Townes Van Zandt on some stages, going back & forth, stark ballads and zings

meanwhile,

Hugely honored to receive the Presidents Pride of Performance Award today wowwww thank you Mr.President @ArifAlvi and H.E US ambassador @Masood__Khan for the nomination

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) August 14, 2022

Her tweet thread about touring and playing to large crowds but still losing money is getting attention

Touring has been amazing. We headlined a ton, had massive turnouts and have proven ourselves in all the markets. Yet still, running 10s of thousands in debt from the tour and I’m being told that it’s “normal”. Why is this normal. This should not be normalized.

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) September 6, 2022

This is after artists already lost so much income during Covid. Now post covid flights fuel visas taxes and hotel prices are outrageous, promoters afraid to raise ticket prices, audiences still nervous to go out… what a fking mess and we are expected to take the hit

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) September 6, 2022

I don't know all the ins and outs but it sounds like a lot of those things are outside anyone's individual control?

Yeah, I mean, that's why it's such a depressing situation, there's not magic bullet solution. Raising ticket prices enough to cover all of those other cost increases is really unlikely to help, it'll just encourage more people to stay home.

That said, I don't know enough about her specific tour to know if this is indeed entirely representative. The "10s of thousands" sound pretty shocking for sure.

The magic bullet solution is twofold: to boycott streaming services and for everyone to get vaccinated

That tweet is ultra depressing. I mean she was on Obama's playlist for chrissakes

I read that more as a riposte to the idea that "touring is how you make money in the music biz" rather than a specific critique of venue prices, even if that seems like the only immediately available solution

obama should give $100,000 to everyone he puts on his playlist

or royalties on his next book

Not sure about other cities, but she played a pretty small venue here in the spring (~200), so am curious if others have seen "massive" turnouts. Tickets were only $31 all-in with venue fees and taxes. I have to imagine her audience is older, which means she can probably stand to raise prices and not lose as many, but I do think her demos have been slower to return to nightlife post-covid.

yeah, i think what she is saying there is "hey i'm doing pretty well and still drowning, help our industry is dying"

obviously i don't think bands playing shows is ever going to disappear, but the one-two punch of predatory streaming and COVID may take out a lot of them ... probably already has and we just don't know it yet.

adding this after seeing Indexed's post: yes, her interpretation of "massive" and proving oneself in markets may be different than others'.

Well, feeling guilty, I just bought VP on vinyl. Didn't realize it had finally been released.

bummer for sure

usually would not advocate for patronage but the margin on a vinyl is not great afaik, so I imagine sending ~2 dollars directly could possibly benefit as much as buying a 30 dollar vinyl

touring should not have a negative margin

I wanted to buy Vulture Prince at her gig - I like buying directly from the artist where possible - but they were charging 40 euros. I want to be a good fan and support her but I couldn't justify spending that much on an album.

Not that that detracts from what she's saying.

I find it hard to believe that many artists are touring at a loss right now, let alone a loss of “tens of thousands” of dollars

yeah, for a three piece... I dunno, should be possible to pay hotels and travel expenses

but then again, it's the music biz

remember when I first read abt members of TLC filing for bankruptcy at the height of their immense commercial sucess (but I digress)

I think they played a lot of festivals, which I could see not paying super well (?). Also, on her list, "visas" stood out to me. I don't know if she has US citizenship or not, but especially if she doesn't, I imagine that is pretty expensive

I see she has a European tour coming up. Possible that they have just had to pre-book (and pay for) lots of plane tickets, visas, hotels, etc. in advance of getting paid?

I thought festivals (and colleges) were the big money makers on tour? That's what I have always heard.

I read that more as a riposte to the idea that "touring is how you make money in the music biz" rather than a specific critique of venue prices, even if that seems like the only immediately available solution

― rob, Wednesday, September 7, 2022 2:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Her wording in the two tweets shared above kind of conveys that feeling popular tweets often do where people are meant to be whipped up to "take a stand" against some oppressive societal system or power ("This should not be normalized" & "we are expected to take the hit") so while I agree with you about their likely intention I was a little unsure myself, hence my own initial response. Also I do wonder how universal her experience is, not to push back against it or anything but there are a lot of baseline variables depending on who you are, where you're going and what you need to bring with you.

I find it hard to believe that many artists are touring at a loss right now, let alone a loss of “tens of thousands” of dollars

― zacata, Thursday, September 8, 2022 7:34 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

why is it hard to believe that artists are touring at a loss?

festival guarantees are much much smaller than a regular gig for all the small font artists. if an artist wants to book hotels instead of sleeping in cans or buses, a 20+ day tour can run up thousands of dollars, even if all three band members share a room.

the venue also takes home 50% of the door and 100% of the bar for the vast majority of artists who aren’t at the superstar level. and in rooms like the ones aftab is playing, you basically have to sell out to see any money at all

50% of the door is a generous estimate that not every artist gets, they usually just get a flat guarantee (given the budget that a lot of small venues work with, that number is prob much smaller than you think it is) and the promoters get the ticket proceeds

Lots of venues take a percentage of merch sales too

which is bullshit

Do they really? Not just when they provide a merch person?

No, the venue usually gets the money from the merch person. They count everything in during load in and recount it after the show. It's a really shitty practice.

I have never understood why bands don't just load more merch in during the opening band. I guess you'd have to be pretty attentive to keep track of it all (ie "why is there more merch here now than when you started?")

I actually don't know how widespread it is, but Stereolab recently posted that there were only 2 venues on their upcoming tour which don't take a cut.

xxp

That is such a bullshit practice that needs to be shamed out of existence, ASAP. I've seen a couple of impassioned arguments FOR the practice from small venue owners that bemoan how much things cost for them, but none of it was enough to convince me.

My most detailed peek into touring band finances was a band some friends were in that used to tour Europe playing mostly small theaters. 8 piece band in a bus plus a sound person, driver, and merch person. Pre-pandemic they would come home with some money, let's say $5 - 15k per person depending on the length of the tour. Not great money at all if you're trying to live on it, and can't take a a full-time job so you can tour a few months out of the year. But definitely not losing tens of thousands of dollars.

I'm sure things are worse now in terms of missed shows due to travel snafus and COVID, lower turn-out and sales, etc. But I'd love to know how much worse, ie does that explain everything or are there additional factors in Aftab's situation.

I see she's booked to come back to the Washington DC area in April 2023 on a bill with Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily all together in a collaborative project called Love in Exile at the fancy suburban Strathmore Music Center in Maryland that I think holds 2,200 people. $23 to $68. Not sure they will fill the place, but maybe she gets a sizable guarantee?

recent conversation i had with two booking agents suggested that Europe for jazz/"world" is good guaranteed money, US is not.

Lots of venues take a percentage of merch sales too

this is insane? does that go for both US/EU?

xxpost To have an idea of what you might be for with Love In Exile, scroll up to where I posted the link to their streaming concert: click on that, then click on the Vimeo you'll see, as I just now did: seems fine, although I didn't try to play the whole thing. Mainly because, as I said in my comments then (May, 2021), I sometimes got frustrated by the knottier, lengthier piano traffic patterns, despite the excellent vocals and bass---piano was effective at times as well, but judging by posts about recent shows, seems like she still gives her colleagues a lot of space---and Vijay is my least favorite of the people she's performed with (although he's always been an effective anchor-to-axis-and-back for Burnt Sugar). But she's mentioned a Love In Exile album that was finished a while back, and I would like to hear it---for one thing, maybe studio budgeting etc. would rein him in.

Time to spill the beans … https://t.co/a1OrLh39Gg

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) November 18, 2022

Definitely looking forward to that at Big Ears.

looking forward to hearing that

Been checking out Love in Exile video online from the last few years via NYC shows and a DC one at the Phillips Collection art museum. Improvised and a bit more melancholy. Definitely rewarding

Oh, some of the Love in Exile stuff is mentioned upthread. They first did it in 2018 and have done it on and off over the years.

Has the Love in Exile album been delayed? It's March in like 10 days but no preorder, no tracklisting, no info since that tweet back in November.

https://f-cat.de/en/artist/love-in-exile

This says spring 2023. Aftab's manager told me during a zoom interview I did with her a few weeks ago, that the first single from it would be out February 23 and that the album would be out March 23

^ Ooh, thanks, I'm glad it's not pushed back! She has just confirmed the single on Twitter BTW:

FIRST SINGLE of the new project is out tomorrowwwww TOMORROWWW

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) February 22, 2023

tomorrow... but that's... today!!

yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z0w7U6yw0c
Arooj Aftab ft. Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily • To Remain/To Return

(there's also a 3'19 edit)

has anyone listened to this all?
I think it’s a beautiful piece, if perhaps less ‘dramatic’ than the Vulture Prince material

Yes, I really enjoyed it, but will wait for the full album before listening again.

ha, I was going to post the exact same thing

Working w/ Vijay Iyer & S. Azmaily rather than Vulture Prince musicians I think is going to sound a bit different (although some of Aftab vocal melodies may seem consistent). Upthread and on Youtube are some live Love in Exile shows from NY & DC that the album will likely resemble.

Gonna be including the album in my Stereogum column for March even though it's pretty far from "jazz." Really beautiful, though.

Looks like the album is not going to include the magnificent piece they did for the Resonant Bodies comp (is that how they got they her?)

https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/resonant-bodies?t=6 if you missed it

* is that how they got together?

Iyer I read often invites people to perform with him and he invited Aftab to play onstage with him. Then he invited Aftab and Ismaily to do so, and after they all played together once , Ismaily was so so wowed he asked the other two to keep playing together as a trio

album is out (have yet to listen)

keep waiting for the album to begin, riyl sleepy ECM

Yeah it's more an ECM album with Arooj than an Arooj Aftab album. I also found the beginning to be too quiet, but now I'm enjoying the dialogue between piano and double bass and the tranquil warmth (Shadow Forces - Sajni), the slightly darker Eyes of the Endless. I think there's enough tension and beauty to hook me.

I have precisely zero problems with sleepy ECM plus Arooj.

It's not sleepy, exactly — it's just a slow build. And you really need to listen to the whole thing front to back; you can't really pluck one track out (though I did, obviously, when covering it for Stereogum).

Nate Chinen interviews Love In Exile:

On this special episode of All Songs Considered, Iyer, Aftab and Ismaily sat down in the Brooklyn recording studio Ismaily owns for for an in-depth conversation that touches on the origins of the trio, which they say felt instantly charged with spiritual energies. They also dicussed the implications of the name "Love in Exile," with its play of diaspora and longing; the mysterious way that a song form can emerge out of group improv and "ritual time" as an expression of tempo ungoverned by genre or market concerns.

Saw the Love in Exile trio Friday night . I enjoyed the ethereal soundscapes they did. It's a Vijay Iyer led project. Aftab sounded great when she sang. But she looked a little stressed. Early in the show she noted that she had monitor issues, and then later she didn't talk in between songs much -- a couple of comments about wanting more wine to drink onstage.(that first sounded like a joke or sarcasm, but after second comment about it , she seemed annoyed with the theatre for real).

I saw that a couple of dates from the Love In Exile tour have turned up on Dime. Not listened to the sets yet. Have enjoyed teh couple of tracks I've heard by her and did see she got an article in one of teh UK monthlies last moth that I've been too busy to read so far. Hopefully get to that over next few days.

Lot of good stuff on her Bandcamp. I'd take all that over the live Love in Exile performance linked upthread (because Vijay's long-ass ruminations), but haven't yet heard the album or tour bits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6QNNxCf-3s

New Aftab, Iyer, Ismaily on NPR Tiny Desk (there's also an older Tiny Desk with Aftab with her own band)

Is it just me or is this lovely new single giving Sade vibes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5IOeXg1jJY

Yep, trailer for this sure does

directed by Tessa Thompson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLE-B7_bSSw

this is the single and yeah it is very much giving sade vibes, i love it

gorgeous song and video

New album Night Reign coming May 31. Moor Mother guests on a track

Contender for SOTY (so far) IMO

US tour....in 2025, it looks like

Such a beautiful song

Contender for SOTY (so far) IMO

― Tim F, Friday, April 19, 2024 6:29 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

absolutely, my goodness

I'm not so sure it works in isolation as a single, but I am sure it will in the context of the album. I like the instrumental development in the middle, the vocal effects are a bit much but still gorgeous.

Agree, sounds like an album cut to me. Very hyped for this!

reminds me a bit of Sade's "Immigrant"

new song is lovely and mesmerizing as usual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QwMt4tflD8

Wow.

“I think I’m ready to give into your beauty and let you fall in love with me”

This album looks set to be the best “X goes mainstream” heel turn ever

gorgeous!

This is undeniable. Beautiful.

Wow, she's following on Mohabbat and taking the progressive folk / singer-songwriter direction. I love the way she's been evolving her sound. This feels less minimalist and more orchestrated.

I like all the various approaches she has used including the latest

Rave review of new album in WSJ--paywallled, but I read the print at library: Mark Richardson says her mastery of various approaches is dazzling and totally accessible.

Rolling Stone has a paywalled piece on her too

So excited

first track on this is utterly divine

wonderful album but that first track kinda towers over everything

i just keep listening to it on loop instead of the rest of the album

lol elvis costello plays on this?

First track is glorious (and reminds me of Bad Timing/Threeway/Eureka era Big Jim).

I am midway through the second track and I want to say this was my most anticipated album of the year and rightly so

can confirm opening track is as good as anything on the debut, gorgeous

I'd say the whole album is as good as the debut: similar execution, meditative but moving, nuanced and mature but youthful, with a richer sound and collaborations, very satisfying balance. Compositions seem great and ideal to spend time with - some clothed in shadow, not immediately revealing, others brightly sensitive. I'm just babbling, when the album enjoins to sit and stay quiet, I'd post that if I could.

i think it's even better than the debut

This album is all I'm listening to today. Another highlight for me is the deep groove of the bass-driven Bola Na, Moor Mother's spoken voice being a great complement to her singing. I also like the double bass on Last Night Reprise, although it does not beat reggae, and obviously the bass on Raat Ki Rani. On the side of strings, several moments on Na Gul and Saaqi. All aside from Aey Nehin.

This is amazing.

Album rules. Would not have thought she could top the debut but this might do it.

"Raat Ki Rani" is still the one for me on this album but the opener comes v close

Rave review of new album in WSJ--paywallled, but I read the print at library: Mark Richardson says her mastery of various approaches is dazzling and totally accessible.

― dow, Thursday, May 30, 2024

Oh, thanks for the heads-up (my libary has electronic access to WGJ). Geeta Dayal's written about it for 4 Columns, too:

https://4columns.org/dayal-geeta/arooj-aftab

That's a very good and enlightening review

I regret assuming Vulture Prince was her debut, I believe at the time of its release her earlier records were not streaming.

this has prompted me to listen to the self-released debut "bird under water" which is excellent and confident

love love love hearing kaki king's guitar on this

this album is wonderful

I feel bad, but the only thing I could do without is the Moor Mother feature, just doesn't quite gel for me as much as I like them both and, theoretically, the idea of them collaborating

Sorry, but Moor Mother has a William Shatner cadence on that track. I can't unhear it.

the version of autumn leaves on here is gorgeous

This is absolutely fantastic! All of the comments on the first track otm.

Hard to say that this is ""better"" than Vulture Prince, but this is definitely more up my alley.

Aey Nehin an Na Gul are wonderful, the rest of the album doesn't really work for me

The reprise of Last Night feels a bit inessential, but the rest is great, esp. Autumn Leaves.

Front row in Bristol Beacon last night. She sang. She bantered. She gave me (and about 20 other people) a whisky. Bloody phenomenal. What a voice.

Sounds great

anyone else prefer Night Reign to Vulture Prince

Me. It feels more of a singular piece.

Vulture Prince is, as she herself said last night, a sad album, but Night Reign is more joyous, flirty, exciting. It has a broader emotional palette. I prefer it, just.

And Siren Islands is something else entirely.

caught the night reign tour, great band, "bolo na" was a surprise highlight, don't care much for the album version but it ruled! kinda metal vibe, droney, broody

and "last night" got the drum and bass treatment, super cool version

I like em both. I hope that she continues to get year end acclaim in a music world focused on US and UK pop, and indie rock

In which she meets Colbert (after performing awesomely btw, her band too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaGus2qA1zE

Saw her in Vancouver tonight, she was very funny live! And there were more bass solos than I expected

Front row in Bristol Beacon last night. She sang. She bantered. She gave me (and about 20 other people) a whisky. Bloody phenomenal. What a voice.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, November 2, 2024 12:02 AM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

She told us she wanted to buy the audience shots, but alas, liquor laws here in BC meant she wasn’t allowed to do that :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2qG0GOpwnI

Remix w/ Khruangbin that I read a former ilxor describe as like Enigma

Is that good or bad

Not sure

hehe, there's something Enigmatic abt the 90s drum loop

*puts on return to innocence*

Just saw her tonight with her band in a small club DC. She said she got bronchitis from a fan coughing on her recently as the fan was getting an album signed! Her voice sounded good, although she was drinking water and using what looked like an inhaler between songs. While I enjoyed the show, I liked her better when I saw her with Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily. I thought the flautist was too noodley in her solos. She also had a drummer, acoustic bassist, and a guitarist. Each song live followed a format where they would do the opening , she would sing some, and then the band would play solos and such and then she would come back in. I didn't find this current band's instrumental additions during these live parts as interesting as her prior bands or as listenable as the studio versions.

club in Washington DC.

I wasn't there but the format you describe seems to be a result of her bronchitis?

Her voice sounded strong to me, but yeah maybe she chose to let the band play more on each song due to the bronchitis.

I think Arooj Aftab fans might like Ganavya 2025 album Nilam. I saw Ganavya live last night and she has an impressive voice. More India/South Asian traditionalism than Pakistani but Ganavya who was performing with a harpist who has played with Shabaka Hutchings and an acoustic bassist is also into jazz and has studied under Vijay Iyer who played with Aftab

I've liked her stuff in the past, didn't know there was a new album, thanks!