The Making of Star Rise

In 1997, Real World commissioned the leading lights of the UK’s so-called Asian Underground movement to remix and reshape the back catalogue of the great Pakistani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Asian Dub Foundation, Nitin Sawhney, State Of Bengal, The Dhol Foundation and Fun^Da^Mental took their pick of Nusrat’s classic album Mustt Mustt, while Talvin Singh, Joi, Aki Nawaz and Earthtribe reconstructed cuts from Night Song, the record made by Nusrat and his Canadian collaborator Michael Brook. When the project was nearing completion, tragedy struck: Nusrat died suddenly, leaving Star Rise as a memorial to this unique artistic visionary. A decade and a half later, it remains a strikingly modern tribute, from State Of Bengal’s beautifully unhurried reimagining of ‘Shadow’ right through to the fidgety, floor-quaking dub of ADF’s remix of ‘Taa Deem’.