Sheherazaad – Qasr
Slipping into the world Sheherazaad weaves on Qasr makes for utterly compelling listening, arresting and refreshing in equal measure
Spacious arrangements meet deeply poetic storytelling on this stellar stand-out debut mini-album from American-Indian artist Sheherazaad. Produced by Arooj Aftab, Qasr (translated from Urdu: ‘castle’ or ‘fortress’) weaves tales on topics from fame’s excesses (Mashoor) to apocalyptic temporalities (Khatam), to aging and nostalgia (Koshish) over five tracks.
Qasr draws from folk, Indian classical stylings, pop, even jazz and flamenco, never tied down by genre or era. The inherent fusion and flux of diasporic life breathes itself into the ebb and flow of textures and tonalities across songs: Koshish, she says, is homage to her Californian upbringing, “revamping the surfer genre with brown beach bodies and hidden Oud.” Her lyricism often paints contemporary life with surreal beauty. 'Come, lets eat this Silence', she sings (translated from Urdu) on the slow, jazz-inflected Khatham, 'But here there is neither hunger nor thirst'.
Qasr is an album drawing from, but never mired by nostalgia – rather, it reimagines what it means to ‘be’ in this world, across worlds, at times creating spaces between reverie and reality to explore what also could be. Slipping into the world Sheherazaad weaves on Qasr makes for utterly compelling listening, arresting and refreshing in equal measure.
Listen to: Koshish