Tag: album

  • Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s album Chain of Light released after 30 years

    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s album Chain of Light released after 30 years

    More than 30 years after it was recorded, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s legendary voice returns with the release of Chain of Light, a lost album released on Friday by Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records.

    The album was recorded in 1990 at Real World Studios. There are four tracks in the 41-minute album.

    The songs, including ‘Ya Allah Ya Rehman’ and ‘Aaj Sik Mitran Di’ take listeners back to the energy of Khan’s live concerts.

    The track ‘Ya Gaus Ya Meeran’ adds intensity, while ‘Khabram Raseed Imshab’ offers a joyful tone, highlighting the range of Khan’s legendary vocals.

    In addition to Nusrat on harmonium and vocals, the album features his brother Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, tabla player Dildar Hussain, and chorus members Mujahid Ali, Rehmat Ali, Rahat Ali, Asad Ali, Ghulam Farid, and Khalid Mahmood.

    Peter Gabriel, founder of Real World Records, shared his admiration for Nusrat when the album was first announced in June.

    “What he could do with his voice was extraordinary,” said Gabriel. “We were proud to help bring him to a wider global audience. This album shows him at his peak.”

    The recordings were rediscovered in 2021 after being forgotten in storage during the label’s archive relocation.

    Gabriel called the rediscovery a “real delight,” noting that Chain of Light reveals Nusrat at his best.

    He passed away in 1997 at the age of 48, but he remains an influential figure in world music. His family members, including Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and his sons, continue his legacy.

  • Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s lost album to be released after 34 years

    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s lost album to be released after 34 years

    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s lost album to be released after 34 years

    After a 34-year wait, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s album ‘Chain of Light’ is ready to mesmerize fans of the maestro. The album is scheduled to debut on September 20, 2024, seventeen years since his death.

    The qawaali king’s Instagram account stated, “Today we are very proud to announce the release of Chain of Light — a lost album by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party. It will be released by @realworldrec on 20 September 2024.”

    The album will feature the great Nusrat himself along with eight other artists and will include a never-before-heard qawwali. The recordings took place in April 1990 at Real World Studios.

  • Arooj Aftab to perform alongside Dua Lipa, SZA

    Arooj Aftab to perform alongside Dua Lipa, SZA

    The accolades don’t stop pouring in for Pakistani Grammy winning singer Arooj Aftab.
    The ‘Mohabbat’ crooner will perform at the famous Glastonbury Festival in London this June. Aftab, known for her soulful singing and mixing classical and modern music, shared the news on her Instagram account.
    “UK make plans! We are back at Glastonbury, June 2024.”
    Aftab also posted the exciting line-up on the carousel, promising performances from both classic and new artists including PJ Harvey and Cyndi Lauper.

    Female artists will headline two out of three slots at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival in June for the first time, with Dua Lipa and SZA joining rock-band Coldplay, organizers announced on Thursday.
    Country pop star Shania Twain will perform in the Sunday afternoon “legend” slot. British-Albanian Dua Lipa, known for hits like New Rules and One Kiss, will debut on the Pyramid Stage shortly after releasing her third album, Radical Optimism.

    Coldplay, veterans at Worthy Farm, will headline for a record fifth time. The inclusion of US R&B star SZA is a surprise in the lineup. The 34-year-old’s acclaimed album SOS won a Grammy last month, and her single Kill Bill has been on the British charts for months.
    The festival, which sold out in under an hour when tickets were released in November, faced criticism last year for an all-male top billing.
    Earlier this year, Aftab missed out on double Grammy wins after not winning in the two categories she was nominated for. The Mohabbat singer received nominations for Global Music Performance and Best Jazz Alternate Album.

    Aftab’s album Love in Exile got nominated for Best Jazz Alternate Album, and Shadow Forces got recognized for new vocal or instrumental global music. It’s important to mention that Aftab became the first Pakistani artist to win music’s top honors in 2022.

  • Jungkook announces his solo album ‘Golden’

    Jungkook announces his solo album ‘Golden’

    BTS band member Jungkook has unveiled the name and release date of his upcoming solo album ‘Golden’. In a statement released by his management BigHit Entertainment on the South Korean social media platform ‘Weverse’, it was stated that the album’s name was inspired by some of the golden moments of the singer’s career.

     Hello. This is BIGHIT MUSIC. We are excited to announce the release of BTS member Jung Kook’s solo album “GOLDEN.” “GOLDEN” is an album inspired by the golden moments of Jung Kook, the golden maknae of BTS and a solo artist.”

    The statement further said that the album will consist of 11 tracks, including ‘Seven’ featuring Lattoo and ‘3D’ with Jack Harlow, and will be released on November 3. Jungkook will also be making special appearances and performances ahead of the release.

    Fans can start preordering the album from October 4.

    Jungkook has so far released two songs from album, including ‘3D’ which was met with acclaim from fans and music critics. The song quickly became a global hit by dominating 30 global iTunes charts in more than 100 countries. The other single ‘Seven’, released on July 14, rose up on the Billboard 200 charts.

  • Taylor Swift announces 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

    She never goes out of style

    Taylor Swift really knows how to keep cruising. On Wednesday she announced that her next rerecorded album will be 1989, on the sixth L.A show of the Era’s tour at SoFi Stadium.

    The new rerecording comes after Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version)- in an effort to own the original masters of her own albums after she spoke publicly about cutting ties with her own record label when they sold it to Scooter Braun.

    Swift said the album will be released internationally on October 27, calling it a dream to own her music:

    “Since I was a teenager, I wanted to own my music and the way to do it was to re-record my albums and call them Taylor’s Version. And the way that you have embraced that, the way that you have celebrated that, you really decided that it was your fight, too, and that you were 100% behind me and that if I cared about it, you cared about it,” the ‘Anti-Hero’ singer. “I will never stop thanking you for that. It was so generous. And so now here we are at the last night of the US leg of the Eras Tour in the eighth month of the year, on the ninth day of the month.”

    “There’s something that I’ve been planning for a really, really long time… and I think instead of just like telling you about it, I think I’ll just sort of show you,” and Swift gestured to the screen which showed the album artwork for 1989, along with the release date.

    Along with a post on her social media account, Swift called this her ‘FAVOURITE re-record’ and said that the 5 From The Vault tracks are ‘insane’.

    Released in 2014, the album featured critically acclaimed tracks like ‘Blank Space’, ‘Style’ and ‘Wildest Dreams’, and had gone on to win Swift’s second Album of the year award at the Grammy’s.

  • Drop everything now: Taylor Swift releases Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

    Drop everything now: Taylor Swift releases Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

    This night is sparkling as at long last, Taylor Swift finally released her third rerecorded album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) which also features six previously unreleased songs from the vault tracks.

    “It’s an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20. I remember making tracklist after tracklist, obsessing over the right way to tell the story. I had to be ruthless with my choices, and I left behind some songs I am still unfailingly proud of now,” Taylor wrote in a statement announcing the album’s release.

    The rerecorded album follows Fearless and Red as Taylor attempts to take back control of her musical legacy when she was denied the opportunity to own her original masters by her record label Big Machine Records in 2019, a decision she detailed on a Tumblr post as the “worst case scenario” when news spread that the masters were sold to Scooter Braun:

    “This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it. 

    When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.”

    The updated album features six previously unreleased songs including  ‘Electric Touch’ featuring Fall Out Boy and ‘Castles Crumbling’ with Paramore’s Hayley Williams. The others ‘From the Vault’ tracks are titled ‘When Emma Falls in Love,’ ‘I Can See You’, ‘Foolish One’, and ‘Timeless’.

    Listen to the album here:

  • Taylor Swift surprises fans with a new album ‘Evermore’

    Taylor Swift surprised fans with a new album titled Evermore, her second album of this year, saying “we just couldn’t stop writing songs.” Evermore comes less than five months after Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore.

    The award-winning singer described the 15-track album as a “sister record” to Folklore, which she produced entirely during the coronavirus lockdowns and released unexpectedly in July. Folklore, a change of style that showed an indie-folk sensibility, earned Swift some of the best reviews of her career as well as triggering six Grammy nominations, including for the coveted album of the year.

    “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” Swift wrote on Thursday. “I’ve never done this before. In the past, I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released. There was something different with Folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning.”

    “I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found in your lives. So I just kept writing them,” she added.

    The mysterious William Bowery, who Swift last month revealed was a pseudonym for her British actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn, is also credited as a co-writer on the new album.

    Evermore features collaborations with alternative artist Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner, guitarist with indie rock band The National

    Taylor also dropped the music video for its lead single ‘Willow’, which she directed herself.

    In the YouTube chat before the album’s premiere, Swift revealed the meaning behind the visual. “One scene represents how I feel about fame,” she said.