RIZWAN-MUAZZAM QAWWALI - At The Feet Of The Beloved

Qawwali is the devotional music of the Sufis of India and Pakistan: a ritual that ignites the emotional sphere and amplifies the spiritual resonance of words, a means of drawing closer to the divine rooted in South Asian thought. It was on this terrain that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who passed away in 1997, made his mark, a central figure who turned this tradition into a vast, essential body of recorded work. It's in this vein that "At The Feet of the Beloved" arrives, the first album in over twenty years from brothers Rizwan and Muazzam Ali Khan, Nusrat's nephews and keepers of a spiritual legacy passed down for over seven centuries.

The album, recorded in their studio in Faisalabad and released on Real World, the label run by Peter Gabriel that for years has welcomed some of the most important figures in South Asian music, collects three compositions from the family repertoire never performed by their uncle, two in Urdu and two in Punjabi. Long, ecstatic mantras, sustained by percussion, handclaps and a burning vocal line in constant dialogue with the harmonium, lead the listener toward a trance-like state. "Meherban" opens with an Urdu poem of love and devotion, in which tabla and dholak quiver while the harmonium dances around the group's voices.

"Ja Mur Ja" is a Punjabi song inspired by the folk tale of Sassui Punnhun, warning of the tragedies that can befall those who fall in love. Among its most striking features is the gradual crescendo: an instrumental prelude introduces the melody, then the vocal part intones an improvised introduction akin to an alap in Indian classical music, free in rhythm yet decisive in setting the mood. From there the tempo intensifies, the percussion thickens, until it slips into an ecstatic state.

A central role is played by call and response: the soloist proposes a line that the voices pick up or transform, generating a vortex of continuous energy that ebbs and flows in a collective breath. The lyrics, often drawn from Sufi poetry, speak of devotion, love for the divine and the allegorical search for mystical union: the vocal technique, in its dynamics and enunciation, amplifies the spiritual meaning of the verses. Singing seated on the floor according to tradition, the Ali Khan brothers and the seven musicians accompanying them build, across four tracks running from eleven to fourteen minutes, one of the most intense experiences of 2025.

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15/12/2025