Sunday, August 16, 2015

...Of The Journey So Far

Around five months ago, me and my co-conspirators announced the details of our collaborative project entitled "The Dream Journey - Discovering Musicians Across Pakistan". We had spent the end of December 2014 traveling cross the length of Pakistan, meeting, interviewing, listening to and recording some of the most talented traditional musicians across Pakistan. By the time the trip was over, we had accumulated hundreds of hours of footage and audio, and then began the arduous task of organizing and editing the material into a coherent whole. Apart from our fabulous director/editor, the rest of us had little or no past experience in putting together a project of this magnitude. However, through trial and error, communicating through email, Facebook chat and the occasional albeit wonderful meetings, the team has begun making progress.

We began by releasing short audio teasers on the project's Soundcloud page , which were greatly appreciated by the listeners. The next step was to begin sharing the wonderful performances we had recorded, in HD video and audio. And that's what we've been doing for the past three weeks. I was terrifically happy at having participated in this brilliant journey, and after seeing the performances being released, that happiness is mixed with a lot of pride. Our motley crew of enthusiasts has managed to create something really noteworthy, something that will live on long after this project has been forgotten. I am a voracious gatherer of Qawwali recordings (the understatement of the century) and thus have been privileged to see and hear a lot of performances, both on TV and online, and I can state unequivocally that I have not come across anything as wonderfully recorded as our project.

For those who wish to follow our journey, we are on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram; where our current as well as future releases are being curated. For those who wish to support our project, please go HERE to donate via PayPal. Any and all donations shall be gratefully received and acknowledged.

Well I can't just leave the gentle reader hanging after writing two paragraphs loaded with superlatives and not sharing what we've released so far. So, without further ado, presenting the first three performances from The Dream Journey - Discovering Musicians Across Pakistan.

P.S Be sure to watch in HD

1. Charkha - Ustad Ameer Ali Khan And Party 


2. Kaliyan Sang Karat - Ustad Fareed Ayaz - Abu Muhammad Qawwal And Brothers


3. Dil Burd Az Mun - Ustad Abdullah Niazi & Waqas Niazi Qawwal


2 comments:

  1. This is such awesome stuff! Wish you lots of luck and looking forward to more updates and the film!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Musab Sahib,

    Thank you for your fantastic work. Abu Mohammad and Fareed had invited me to the gathering for the Dream Journey but unfortunately I had prior commitments and could not fly in. By the way I am Naveed Sadozai, working for WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. It would be really nice to touch base with you through email ( sadozain@gmail.com ) and hopefully later through telephone as well. If by any chance, you are ever passing by Gemeva, please let me know.
    I know Arif Ali Khan and Arif Hasnain ( primarily courtesy Fareed and Abu )
    Best wishes for Ramazan to you and the family
    Naveed

    ReplyDelete