Arooj Aftab: Night Reign (digital outlets)

Among the many rewards of listening to music is the constant discovery of artists old and new. At Elsewhere barely a week goes by when we don't stumble on some odd track worthy of an entry From the Vaults or someone WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . .

One of the most musically beguiling discoveries of recent years – and a charming interview subject before appearances in Wellington and Womad in early 2024 – has been Arooj Aftab, whose last two albums have appeared in our annual best of the year lists.

Born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, and after teenage years in Lahore, she's now based in Brooklyn and connected to a global village of artists and collaborators like sitar player Anoushka Shankar, and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and bassist Shahzad Ismaily (the latter two shared billing on her last album Love in Exile).

As on her breakthrough album Vulture Prince (2021), Aftab's vocals floated between the ethereally hypnotic and transporting meditative states.

But Night Reign -- her third album in as many years – has a more earthy quality in places. Like in the stealthy menace of Bolo Na with Black American poet Moor Mother, and Whiskey which – despite the trickle of harp and intimate, dreamy mood – is about a night on the tiles with a lover.

These are some way from the transcendent states of those two previous albums although that elevated, enigmatic beauty is also here on the hymnal Na Gul, the slowly measured Saaqi (with Iyer) and Zameen.

There's a teased-out treatment of the Rumi poem Last Night which featured on Vulture Prince, with Scottish harp player Maeve Gilchrist and guitarists Kaki King and Cautious Clay.

Somewhere between night-owl jazz, slow-burning world music and a seduction, Night Reign occupies its own spiritual sphere where even her version of the standard Autumn Leaves with keyboard player James Francies sounds like a companion piece to Last Night: mysterious, otherworldly and floating in warm suspension.

That's three in a row from Arooj Aftab.

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You can hear this album at Spotify here