Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali announce new album At the Feet of the Beloved

Their vocals and arrangements are refined and, together with their party, they build a world that helps the listener connect to another one. The album is out on 14 March 2025, and the group will be touring in the UK and North America later this year.

Brothers Rizwan and Muazzam Ali Khan are the contemporary torchbearers of the rich Qawwali musical tradition using their extraordinary voices to transport listeners to another, spiritual dimension. Performing together since the late 1990s when they were championed by Real World Records, the same label who worked with their late uncle, Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali have developed a devoted worldwide following with their exceptional live shows and acclaimed albums, including A Better Destiny and Day of Colours. In great demand with global followers, Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali have performed at festivals and venues including Barbican London, WOMAD festivals in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and some of North America’s most prestigious performing arts centres.

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The brothers are back with a new record that teems with all the love and transcendent longing one associates with Qawwali — but, in a way which the pair seem set on making their own. As producer and manager Rashid Din puts it: “There hasn’t been anybody who actually has led the legacy in this manner of working in the footsteps of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – even from his family, these are the only two brothers who are actually trying to follow the footsteps of their late uncle. And even within Pakistan, there are many Qawwali singers doing a good job, but nobody is doing anything new, they’re just repeating and copying Nusrat songs. So, we felt the need to give new material as Nusrat is not with us anymore. These two brothers are doing a great job with the new lyrics and new compositions, trying to take Nusrat’s message further.”

And so it is on At the Feet of the Beloved that we find a collection of four beautiful songs; two in Urdu and two in Punjabi; among the latter, one song has never been recorded before, and finds original composition from the two brothers. Recorded in their home studio in Pakistan, these are, at their core, songs about seeking love and peace, of course; but Rashid suggests the interpretation is ultimately down to the beholder. “We call them their love songs, but there is a spirituality in there. But it’s contemporary, too; it can be applied either way, spiritually or materialistically. It depends on where an individual’s love is — whether it’s spiritual or non-spiritual.”

Ahead of the album’s release, the group have shared the track ‘Yaar Da Muhallah’, as well as a live performance video filmed at Real World Studios. On this qawwali the devotion pours forth, ultimately religious and spiritual in nature but open to the listener on the type of love they hold in their own heart. In Qawwali, worship of the divine is a romantic ecstasy in of itself, as heard in the line, “I have dyed my heart in the beloved’s hue” where the vocals and instrumentation build in mesmerising intensity and passion.

At the Feet of the Beloved is out 14 March 2024 on Real World Records, available on CD, LP and digitally. The group have announced a headline show at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 18 May 2025, with regional dates to be announced soon.

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