A long-lost Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan album will be released on September 20, more than a decade after the legendary Pakistani singer recorded it.
Dubbed the Chain of Light, it was discovered in the tape archives of Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, the label that signed Khan in 1989 and released a series of universally acclaimed albums with him throughout the 1990s.
It contains four traditional qawwals (Sufi Islamic devotional songs) — including one “which has never been heard before — and captures Khan at the height of his vocal capabilities in pristine sonic quality,” the company said in a press release. It is joined by his eight-strong party of singers and musicians.
The recording was made at Real World Studios in April 1990, during the same time he worked on Mustt Mustt, his seminal crossover album with Canadian producer Michael Brook.
Khan, also known as Shahenshah-e-Qawwal, tragically died in 1997. He was 48. Almost 30 years later, the singer’s legacy continues to attract new generations of fans, evident in the six million average monthly Spotify listeners and YouTube videos of his music racking up over one billion views.
“I’ve had the privilege to work with a tonne of different musicians from all over the world in my time, but perhaps the greatest singer of them all was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,” said Peter Gabriel.
“What he could do and make you feel with his voice was quite extraordinary and we were very proud to have played a role in getting him to a much wider global audience. It was a real delight when we found out this tape had been in our library. This album really shows him at his peak. It’s a wonderful record.”
The album was buried deep in a warehouse storage space at Real World Studios and unearthed whilst the label was relocating its archive in 2021.
“There is an amazing clarity to these performances,” producer Michael Brook said of the recordings. “They are more harmonically adventurous than the other songs that Nusrat was recording at the time and the whole group is firing on all cylinders.”
The launch of the album is being supported in part by the British Council.
Moreover, Saiyna Bashir Studios, an Islamabad based company, will release documentary film titled Ustad at the end of 2025. “The film will tell the untold story of one of the world’s greatest singers, featuring rare and unseen archive footage with contributions from a cast of close family, friends, collaborators and fans.”
Ya Allah Ya Rehman (A much loved classic Qawwal, first performed by Nusrat. Language: Urdu)
Aaj Sik Mitran Di (Written by the Sufi saint Peer Meher Ali Shah. Language: Punjabi)
Ya Gaus Ya Meeran (Written by the Sufi saint Nasir Udin Nasir, grandson of Peer Meher Ali Shah. Language: Urdu)
Khabram Raseed Imshab (From Nusrat’s family repertoire, sung by his father and uncle. Originally comes from Amir Khusro, the ‘father of Qawwali’. Language: Persian)
“Nusrat sahab was a unique genius. When I look at him as a whole package, he is untouchable even now,” Indian musician A R Rahman said.
