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

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.