Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - Night Song

· music ·

I'll be forever grateful to Peter Gabriel's RealWorld Studios for producing this album. Without it, I might never have come across the late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Nusrat was a Sufi singer - a mystical sect of Islam, in which ecstatic music, singing and dancing is an important part of the devotions. In this collaboration, Nusrat's remarkable voice is paired with the subtle trance-like music of Michael Brook.

Nusrat's voice is absolutely unique. It soars and swoops around, conveying pain, longing and ecstasy so vividly that you don't need to understand the language (or read the track titles) to get the emotional meaning. His voice has power and subtlety and is utterly seductive. The more you listen to this album, the more it will seep into your consciousness. It's also a very sensual album, in a totally unexpected way. It also influenced my choice of restaurant when I was in Paris once with Mr. Butshesagirl. We were wandering around, trying to find a place to eat, but we just couldn't decide. Then we heard this album drifting out from one restaurant. That made our decision for us: we figured that any restaurant owner with the taste to put on this album must cook great food (there's logic in there somewhere). It turned out that we were right.