Qais Essar (left) with Alam Khan. Photo: Sulyman Qardash
The evocative traditional sounds of the sarod and rabab come together on Alam Khan and Qais Essar's new collaboration "Strange Village," whose video offers a glimpse of the meditative journey the American artists take on through music.
Sarod artist, composer and producer Alam Khan - the San Francisco-based artist and son of the late sarod legend Ali Akbar Khan - and Afghan-origin American artist Qais Essar - based in Phoenix, Arizona - have collaborated with the goal of creating a "new genre of global art house" that incorporates their respective instrument's "eclectic-contemporary presentations."
In the video filmed by Stian Rasmussen and edited by Cesar Orozco, we see the bond shared between two American artists who are carrying forward the legacy of traditional instruments in their own styles that clearly wants to break away from easy genre categorization. The duo term "Strange Village" - one of two singles together - as a way of showcasing the sarod and rabab in "a new and accessible context." The intent, they say, is to create a new genre of "global music." Khan adds in a statement, "We'd like to create outside of these boxes and do away with labels." Essar says, "It's not only about creating a vehicle that will allow traditional instruments to be discovered and enjoyed by different audiences and future generations but also to dismiss any preconceived limitations of these instruments."
Both Khan and Essar have been doing just that over the years. Essar has released a handful of albums and has contributed to music for screen, including Oscar-nominated works such as documentary short film Three Songs for Benazir (2022) and 2017 animated film The Breadwinner. Meanwhile, Khan has been pushing the boundaries of the sarod, most recently with his album Mantram in 2022. He's worked with everyone from multi-instrumentalist and producer Karsh Kale to launching the project Grand Tapestry with seasoned hip-hop artist Eligh, plus fusing European classical music with Indian classical for The Resonance Between, with composer Jack Perla, sitarist Arjun Verma and Del Sol Quartet of violin, viola and cello players.
