Born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, Arooj Aftab followed her family to Pakistan at the age of 10. There she taught herself to play guitar, and her singing was inspired as much by American singers as by Indian and Pakistani artists. In the early 2000s, she took advantage of the early days of the internet to make a name for herself in her homeland. She later went into exile in the United States, where she graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2010 she moved to New York, where she became close to the jazz scene, began composing film music and released her first album, Bird Under Water, in 2014.
For her fourth album in 10 years, the artist continues to cultivate her particularity within the music scene and her exploration of the porosity between several styles. With night as its main theme, this opus evokes a twilight where time stretches out and notes tick away like seconds. Ranging from traditional to contemporary music, with a folk or jazz base, the tracks develop over the strings of a harp, a guitar arpeggio or the sound of a synthesiser. With her vocals mainly in Urdu and her lengthy phrasing mixed with accents reminiscent of her origins, the singer is sure to captivate you with her warm voice.
The recording has preserved the sensitivity of the acoustic instruments, the notes spreading out and taking their time to fade away. The touch of the many artists present is particularly highlighted on the percussion and double bass, whose resonances can fill the sound space. The harp lingers in the background on many tracks, and wind and string instruments, as well as a few keyboard notes, reinforce the meditative atmosphere created by the captivating, sovereign vocals. The production goes hand in hand with the intimacy of this spellbinding music.
