Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali debut album re-released ahead of UK tour

Ahead of their upcoming UK tour, Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali’s debut album Attish: The Hidden Fire has been re-released by Real World Records. Originally released in 1998 on the WOMAD Select imprint, the album has been out of print for a number of years and is once again available from today.

The album was recorded in the Qawwali group’s home city of Lahore, Pakistan whilst they were still teenagers, and marked the start of a long relationship with Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records and WOMAD Festival.

Brothers Rizwan and Muazzam Mujahid Ali Khan are nephews of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and come from a direct family line of Qawwali singers that stretches back over five centuries. The group continues Nusrat’s pioneering approach to transcend cultural, language and religious barriers, bring to the world the devotional and vibrant music of the Sufi mystics.

Real World Records have chosen to re-release this rare recording to mark what was the beginning of an impressive musical career which started with their first major concert at WOMAD Festival in Reading, 1998, and saw the group release four further albums for the label and tour across the world over the last two decades. Most recently, they performed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia and now they return to UK for a major tour which includes a sold-out show at London’s Barbican Centre.

“Intoxicating and entrancing, Rizwan and Muazzam’s voices climb and swoop as if riding air currents.” ★★★★★ BBC

TOur Dates

16 MAR CARDIFF Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
19 MAR GATESHEAD Sage
21 MAR LEEDS Town Hall
24 MAR MANCHESTER Royal Northern College of Music
27 MAR SOUTHHAMPTON Turner Sims
28 MAR BRISTOL St. George’s
30 MAR LONDON Barbican Centre [SOLD OUT]
31 MAR BIRMINGHAM Town Hall

Featured release

  • Private: Attish: The Hidden Fire

    Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali

    Released 10 November 1998

    The youngest and most exciting group of Qawwali singers to emerge from Pakistan —nephews of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan— present their stirring interpretation of Qawwali vocal music: devotional love songs based upon classical Islamic and Sufi texts.

By Online Editor

Main image: Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali in Lahore, Pakistan. Photo credit: Stuart Bruce.

Published on Thu, 07 March 19

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