Echoes of the Unseen

In a journey from dawn until the close of night, rabab player Qais Essar’s musical day trip is traditional Afghan music speckled with modernity. The long shadows of dawn are quietly and powerfully evoked by Essar’s gentle and beguiling rabab playing in a tender interplay with Sandeep Singh’s dilruba before the pulsating, satisfyingly earthy and hypnotic daf adds resonant depth to the three-part track, ‘Basking in Morning Light’, which opens the album The playful, inventive and ambitious virtuosity in the tightly played middle track ‘Liminal Time and Space’ demonstrates a thrilling showcase of hugely satisfying melodic and rhythmic interplay of tabla and rabab. This glowing track is surely the highlight of the album. Swirling melodic lines in ‘Devotion at Dusk’ are powerful, as is the yearning beauty of Sandeep Singh’s interplay on the dilruba, before the peaceful ‘Drinking Moonlight (feat Kamaljeet Ahluwalia)’ sinks powerfully into the night, rounding off an impressive new release.