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| Popmatters |
 The town of Nagore in southeast India’s Tamil Nadu province is the site of a Sufi shrine dedicated to a Sufi saint named Meeran Sahib Abdul Qadir Shahul Hamid Badshah. The site is home to a group of devotional singers practicing a transcendental form of Islam that relies of music to induce trances of religious ecstasy. It is not uncommon for pilgrims to visit other nearby religious sites—a Hindu temple, a Christian church—to mingle on the grounds, contributing their own flavors of devotion. In a country as fraught with religious extremism as India, the Nagore shrine serves as a reminder of the ability for diverse religious traditions to coexist, and even to nourish one another.Now EarthSync, a music label based in Chennai, has gone a step further in bringing this site to the attention of the world. Nagore Sessions combines the voices of the shrine’s singers with instrumentation from both Indian and western traditions—a touch of sitar and harmonium, a little violin, some subtle keyboards and not-so-subtle bass. In so doing, the record softens the ragged edges of the music while injecting it with a bit of lower-register verve. The results are compelling, and manage to avoid the worst follies of juiced-up traditional music. Songs are built around three primary singers and a handful of backing vocalists, while thrumming bass and handheld drums provide a propulsive undercurrent. Opening track “Baghdad Guru” is a bit of a warm-up, while “The Saint” is more memorable, benefiting from a cartwheeling melody and nice accents from tabla and bamboo flute. The keyboards are understated enough to be missed unless you listen for them; they serve primarily as a kind of background to the layers of vocals and the trilling flute....full text |
| Womex |
| Nagore Sessions is a unique musical collaboration featuring Sufi, Indian, Middle Eastern and Western elements. Sufi singers Abdul Ghani, Ajah Maideen and Saburmaideen Babha Sabeer from the Nagore Dargah usually perform at religious and social ceremonies at their sufi shrine in coastal Tamil Nadu (South India). Earthy Sufi chants meet compelling percussion from the Middle East and contemporary Western instruments, setting the groove on this unique fusion album, which stands as a working example of intercultural understanding and collaboration in these volatile times. Musicians from many different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds came together to share their music cultures with each other and audiences around the world. EarthSync originally discovered and recorded the Sufi singers for their award-winning audio -visual documentary Laya Project and has now released this full album featuring them and recognized international musicians such as Zohar Fresco, Murad Ali Khan and Patrick Sebag....full text |
| Allmusic |
| Growing out of the Laya Project, this offers an interesting mix, taking three Sufi dargah singers performing traditional material and adding in frame drumming, plenty of keyboards and programming, and some live instruments ranging from violin to sarangi. While the results could be viewed at times like cross-culture lite, there are some fascinating things going on, such as the way the backing on the opener, "Bagdad Guru," echoes Zeppelin's "Kashmir." Overall, it's an easy-on-the-ears listening experience, lush and floating, and the singers are superb in their religious songs that offer a parallel to qawwali. Kudos, too, to the musicians, especially the violinists, who have a superb command of tone. A great deal of time and care has gone into the making of this disc, even if it can occasionally sound like a ‘60s exploration of Indian music (especially on "Allahu Allah," where the sitar break conjures up George Harrison). Whether it offers true insights into the singers themselves remains to be seen, but it's a gentle, undemanding pleasure....full text |
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