Lights Out Listening Session: Vulture Prince

The lights go out, the room becomes silent. In a comfortable cinema seat you listen without distraction to a special album, from beginning to end, through the rich sound of the cinema auditorium. Beforehand, musicologist Rob Hogenboom of Broedplaats OostWest gives a brief introduction about the artist and the music. Then the lights go out and you let the sounds take full effect on you.

The latest Musica Mundo Lights Out Listening Session is dedicated to Vulture Prince by Arooj Aftab. With the song Mohabbat from this album, she was the first Pakistani artist ever to win a Grammy (Best Global Music Performance) in 2022. Her unique style moves between jazz, minimalist pop and ghazals, a South Asian music and poetry form centered on longing, loss and love. As such, the melancholy and emotional charge of ghazal is often compared to the blues.

On Vulture Prince Aftab trades the traditional Pakistani instrumentation of her earlier work for a subtle line-up of violin, harp, double bass and synthesizers. Together they carry her penetrating voice, which sounds at once vulnerable and powerful.

An ode to her late brother, the album is layered, hushed and intense. Music that enters even deeper in the dark. A beautiful light in the darkness.