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Hear Electronica Duo Burudu Conjure a Modern-Day Qawwali on ‘Zehaal-E-Miskeen’

The ghazal gets an electro-fusion interpretation, featuring vocalist Sukanya Chattopadhyay

Aug 11, 2022

New York-based Indian electronica duo Burudu.

New York-based Indian electronic music producers Burudu – Nakul Sharma and Sahil Bhatia – interpret poet Amir Khusrau’s poetry with their latest song “Zehaal-E-Miskeen,” featuring vocalist Sukanya Chattopadhyay.

Melding qawwali with Burudu’s chasmic electronica sound, Chattopadhyay sings in Persian and Brij Bhasha, which was an early catalyst for the duo. “We were initially drawn in because of the coming together of the two languages in the poem. We didn’t understand half the words but it was phonetically beautiful and assertive, and once we understood its true meaning, to us it became even more powerful,” the duo say in a statement.

Chattopadhyay – who worked with Burudu on their 2017 song “Indriya” to great acclaim – adds an emphatic tonality to the track. The duo spent more than a year on “Zehaal-E-Miskeen.” Sharma and Bhatia add in their statement, “We wanted to make sure we did justice to the words and their meaning, while nestling them in a sound we believe in, so the challenge was the timeless and epic poem itself.” The song is built with not just classical vocals over electronic sounds, but also tabla, sarangi, oud and a Turkish string instrument called cümbüş, among others. “We were conscious of not trying to force the two worlds, for which a key factor was that we took our time with this song,” Burudu say in their statement.

“Zehaal-E-Miskeen,” for all its cinematic energy and adrenaline, has also been used to soundtrack Beyond the Light, a fashion short film by Mumbai-based designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. The song is Burudu’s third single this year, following songs like “Immoral Panic” and “When I See You.”

Listen to “Zehaal-E-Miskeen” below. Stream on more platforms here.

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