Shine A Light: Arooj Aftab

Pakistani Sufi singer and composer Arooj Aftab shines a light on the music, books, film and art she’s discovered recently

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Musician
I listened to Bjork’s new album Vulnicura. I’ve been a fan for ages. She says she’s really influenced by Abida Parveen, a Pakistani Sufi Qawali and Kaafi singer, and Amalia Rodriguez, a Portuguese Fadista. When I listened to the album, I could really really hear the influence; I’m not sure how I feel about it. But the album is great, especially Lion Song. And the strings all over are just mind-blowing. I want strings on my next album.

Book
I just finished reading The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov. It was really short so I was actually able to finish it, but the story itself was too difficult to put down. The book has really insane, suspenseful and nonsensically comedic writing. It gets kind of dark at the end. Basically, a doctor performs this weird experimental surgery by transplanting the pituitary and testical glands of a man onto a dog. The text switches from a third person narrating to the dogs thoughts … The author was a Russian morphine-addicted doctor himself. It’s great.

Artist
Evan Mann’s work is mystic, serene, minimal. It’s just incredible. I want to work with him. He’s an American writer, visual artist, photographer. His work is just so perfectly calming and beautiful and real.

Film
I watched Searching For Sugar Man recently, the documentary about the amazing singer-songwriter Rodriguez from Detroit who wrote better songs than Dylan but went completely unnoticed in America in the 1960 and 1970s. He was really an incredible musician. The film is beautifully shot and narrated as well. I was expecting a very boring, factual and cheesy sort of ‘life of that immigrant musician…’ doc but it surprised me very much. And the story is great. I don’t want to give it away for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

Cause
The Nile Project: Musicians Rise Above Conflict. The 11 African countries that line the Nile River have fought over water resources for generations. A group of 13 musicians from seven of those countries wants to change that through music. The Nile Project combines instruments and traditions from all the river countries.

Event
I recently went to the opening night of the art gallery exhibit for Himanshu Suri’s new album Eat, Pray, Thug at the Aicon Gallery in New York. Himanshu Suri is one of the guys from the hip hop group group Das Racist, but he’s doing his own solo thing now. It was a great show and his solo album is awesome. The art at the exhibit was curated by him, featuring all kinds of badass diaspora folks like Chitra Ganesh, Salman Toor and Akash Nihalan.

Bird Under Water, the new album from Arooj Aftab, is out now. Album available on aroojaftab.bandcamp.com

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