Music in Covid Times

A treasure trove of North Indian classical and folk music, Music in Covid Times bagged all the most coveted categories at the recent Global Music Awards, including Best Album and Best Producer for Pakistan’s Sharif Awan. Karachi-based Awan, who had already made waves with his extensive Indus Raag: Music Beyond Borders project back in 2016, is the founding head of the Tehzeeb Foundation which is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Indian classical music – a tradition that is shared by India and Pakistan – and his projects include musicians from both sides of the border as well as those based in the worldwide diaspora. While the pandemic and resulting shutdown caused havoc around the world, Awan was particularly concerned for those relying on concert performances for their livelihoods and reached out to classical musicians to be digitally recorded, resulting in 38 tracks, of which the longest is just under an hour. Such crisp curating allows for a very wide range of styles, vocal as well as instrumental, with dhrupad (an ancient, pure classical vocal style) alongside lighter classical forms such as thumri and an array of instrumental solos featuring sitar, sarangi, bansuri (bamboo flute) violin and tabla solos. The album features a huge number of ragas and numerous musicians, many of whom would be unknown to Western audiences as would some rarely heard folk instruments such as the alghoza (a double-beaked flute), used in the folk music of Sindh, Balochistan and Rajasthan, and the Afghan rubab and a kind of banjo modified in Balochistan from Japan’s taishōgoto.

Fans of Indian classical and folk music are sure to be delighted with Music in Covid Times, which is presented as a slick box set containing a micro-USB and a hardcover book with detailed notes about the music and musicians. There is also a video version available on YouTube, complete with dancers on stage. A veritable feast for the senses.