Photo credit: Jak Kilby
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Real World Records, the label was launched with the release of Peter’s album Passion, alongside the companion album Passion Sources and Tabu Ley Seigneur Rochereau’s Babeti Soukous, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Shahen-Shah and Orquesta Reve’s La Explosíon del Momento!
To celebrate the anniversary the label has announced the release of a new live album by one of their most important artists, the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Live at WOMAD 1985 will be released on 26 July alongside the long-awaited vinyl re-issue of his final album for the label, the Grammy-nominated collaboration with Canadian guitarist/producer Michael Brook, Night Song.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s performance at WOMAD Festival in 1985 was the first time the legendary Qawwali singer had performed in front of a mainly non-Asian audience, and marked the beginning of his relationship with Real World Records and Peter.
The recording of this landmark concert, unheard for 34 years, has been carefully restored from the original analogue tapes. The power and beauty of Nusrat’s voice comes rushing back through the years and lifts us up to the ecstatic heights of Sufi expression.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party at WOMAD Festival on Mersea Island, July 1985. Photo credit: Andrew Catlin
Three of the finest songs from the concert have been selected for this release (with a fourth available as a download), including a full-length 21-minute version of the iconic song ‘Allah Ho Allah Ho’. In this raw and visceral live recording, the songs extend and grow in a way that rarely happens in the studio.
This is a remarkable record of a magical event that changed the perception of Sufi music to a wider audience and set Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on a path to the international recognition of his genius.