Ghazalaw

Ghazalaw, the eponymous debut album from the Wales / India collaboration, is the latest album to be released on Cerys Matthews’ record label ‘Marvels of The Universe’ in co-production with Theatr Mwldan. The album released worldwide on 25 September 2015, followed by live UK performances in November 2015, with support from BBC Horizons Artist Of The Year Kizzy Crawford.

Ghazalaw is  a sublime musical meeting between acclaimed Indian ghazal singer–musician Tauseef Akhtar from Mumbai and Gwyneth Glyn, one of Wales’ leading singer-songwriters from Cricieth, North Wales.

Ghazalaw is a musical love-match, the marriage of two great traditions of love poetry and traditional music: the ghazal singing of the Indian subcontinent and the folk song of Wales. The pairing is unique – ghazal singing has never been fused with any alien musical tradition before – and reveals a remarkable and unexpected affinity between those two traditions. The ease with which they blend into something new and coherent is striking, even obvious.

Tauseef Akhtar served a ten year ‘apprenticeship’ with the greatest ghazal singer of modern times, the ‘King of Ghazal’ Jagjit Singh, responsible for drawing ghazal singing out from its Muslim and Urdu enclave; Tauseef now carries the torch forwards with Ghazalaw.

Gwyneth Glyn is steeped in the linguistic and poetic richness of her homeland, inspired by the landscape of Wales and centuries of tradition. Yet she stands at the forefront of a new Welsh generation keen to seek out and celebrate all the many affinities that tie two distant parts of the world together.

“Ghazalaw is unique. It’s the inarticulate speech of the heart, voiced across cultures, continents and ages. It’s a record from the past, for the future.”   Andy Morgan

A Marvels Of The Universe | Theatr Mwldan | Ghazalaw Co-Production, originated by Wales Arts International. Developed with the support of Arts Council Wales and Welsh Government, working in partnership with Air India.