British High Commissioner to Pakistan Jane Marriott on Tuesday hosted the highly anticipated launch of Chain of Light, a ‘lost album’ by the legendary Pakistani musician Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
The project is a collaboration between Pakistan-based Saiyna Bashir Studios, who have been working on a documentary biopic on the music maestro titled ‘Ustad,’ and English singer and songwriter Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, who produced the lost album in 1990.
The British Council has supported the project, with launch events taking place in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Paris in the lead up to the official album release on September 20. The ‘Ustad’ documentary is slated for release in late 2025.
Chain of Light is an album of previously unheard recordings of Nusrat and his Qawwal party made at Real World Studios in 1990, when the singer was at the height of his vocal capabilities. Carefully restored from the original analogue tapes, this ‘lost album’ of traditional Qawwals includes a pristine recording of the much-loved classic ‘Ya Allah Ya Rehman’ as well the only known performance of ‘Ya Gaus Ya Meeran.’
The late Nusrat is universally recognized as one of the greatest voices in musical history and played a pivotal role in bringing Qawwali, a Sufi devotional music tradition, to the Western world. In his lifetime, he collaborated with many Western musicians, including Peter Gabriel, Eddie Vedder, lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam, and Michael Brook, whose collaborations with musicians around the world have made him one of the most sought-after producers in the music industry. Nusrat’s vocals appeared on soundtracks to films directed by legends like Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Tim Robbins.
Even today, on Spotify, Nusrat is one of the top 10 most listened to artists.