Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Lost Album to Release After 34 Years

Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records will release a new album of unheard recordings by legendary qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on September 20, over 27 years after his death.

Discovered in the label’s tape archives, the ‘lost’ album, Chain of Light, features four traditional qawwali tracks and captures Nusrat at the height of his vocal prowess.

Recorded at Real World Studios in April 1990 with his eight-member party of singers and musicians, it includes one previously unheard track. This session took place during the same period he worked on Mustt Mustt, his seminal crossover album with Canadian producer Michael Brook.

The Legacy of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Over the course of his musical career, NFAK became a cultural icon whose list of esteemed fans extended well into the realm of western rock and pop.

The late Jeff Buckley famously said of the singer “He’s my Elvis”. Nusrat also counted amongst his fans The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder. Having a six-octave vocal range, his voice also appeared on the soundtrack of movies by Hollywood directors Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Tim Robbins.

Nusrat’s relationship with Peter Gabriel and Real World Records began after his watershed performance at the 1985 WOMAD festival, which was the first time he performed to a predominantly western audience.

Shortly after that, he was signed to the label and his international profile rose through a collaboration on Gabriel’s 1989 album Passion, music from which featured in the film adaptation of The Last Temptation of Christ.

“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 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.”

Buried deep in a warehouse storage space at Real World Studios and unearthed whilst the label was relocating its archive in 2021, the April 1990 tape recording that comprises Chain of Light finds Nusrat at a crossroads, on the cusp of global greatness.

Carefully restored from the original analogue tapes, this lost album of traditional qawwali includes a pristine recording of the much-loved classic Ya Allah Ya Rehman, as well the only known performance of Ya Gaus Ya Meeran.

“[The year] 1990 was a key point in Nusrat’s career, it was the beginning of him crossing over into a western audience,” Nusrat’s longtime international manager, Rashid Ahmed-Din, said.

“Everything just clicked. He always wanted to experiment and not be limited to one sound and these tracks express that movement beyond.”

Producer Michael Brook praised the recordings, stating, “There is an amazing clarity to these performances. They are more harmonically adventurous than the other songs Nusrat was recording at the time, and the whole group is firing on all cylinders.”

Fans will be thrilled to learn that a definitive documentary film on Nusrat’s life is in the making. Islamabad-based Saiyna Bashir Studios plans to release their biopic, Ustad, at the end of 2025.

Earlier this year, Saiyna Bashir Studios received a grant from the British Council to support Real World Records in promoting the new album.

Chain of Light will be released by Real World Records on September 20 and will be available for pre-order in various formats, with support from the British Council.

Also Read: Hadiqa Kiani’s ‘Jani Door Gaye’ Honors Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan