On the day before my own departure for Central Asia, Arif Lohar brought his electrified Sufi music to the Asia Society and pretty much tore the place apart.

Although Lohar had been a steady light in Punjabi folk music for years, he really broke through barriers when in 2010 he performed "Alif Allah Chambey Di Booti" on the popular COKE STUDIO show, a mainstay of Pakistani television. His rendition of the Sufi devotional song was pure pop and the video went viral and as of my last checking has garnered almost 8.5 million views on YouTube.

The performance on April 27th of this one song lasted almost 40 minutes, so I had to do a fair amount of editing. But I mainly edited out only those parts of the song where the sound balance was problematic -- at no point did the excitement let up, and as you can see, Lohar woos the audience, and the audience responds in spades!

"Alif Allah Chambey Di Booti" is set to a classic Punjabi beat, (dhol hottie and all) and reminds the participants -- this is participatory music at its heart -- that true reality is the realm of God. It cements this concept through repeated call and response, leading to a tranced, ecstatic state. The "tongs with bells" that Lohar plays is called a Chimta, and he wields it with drama and flair.

Personally, for sheer energy, I think this live rendition, warts and all, blows the pop version out of the water. The concert capped a five-city US tour, organized by Arts Midwest's "Caravanserai: A Place Where Cultures Meet," and was part of the Asia Society's series "Creative Voices of Muslim Asia" supported by the Doris Duke Foundation.

For more of Michal's original music videos, visit inter-muse.com

I’ve been trumpeting our acquisition of the Aga Khan Trust/Smithsonian Folkways’ wonderful series about the music of Central Asia for quite a while, and we are starting to role it out this week. The first two are now streaming, and we will commence broadcast of the others on the 28th.  While the music captured in the series may strike our Western ears as dissonant or long-winded, it gives us a chance to step outside of our listening “comfort zones” and imagine ourselves to be from this part of the world. The programs help us do that by transporting us to places like the sweeping steppes of Kazakhstan, where people still live a nomadic life in round tents called yurts, to wedding celebrations and intimate personal reflections by the artists.  I hope you will find this series as fascinating as I do, and if as the series rolls out, you want to hear more of the music, you can visit the Smithsonian website.

Note:  My first foray into blogdom starts soon, and we’ll be posting my coverage of the NY Gypsy Festival—and who knows, maybe some other goodies, too. I’ll keep you posted, so keep checking in.

This week, I went to hear a fine Korean singer named Jang sa-ik, started reviewing the series on Central Asian music that we will be bringing you soon, and revisited the music of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, from Morocco, because they are performing in New York City this weekend. In the case of both the Central Asian and Moroccan music, there is no western harmony to speak of, and although the music of Jang sa-ik had been orchestrated, his most powerful songs were those which were sung against a drone, and unconcerned with harmony. I'm a harmony freak, so it wasn't  "easy listening."  But here is what I have found: the first time I heard Central Asian music I was at a festival in Samarkand, and after listening to it performed for a while, the western music played afterward sounded rather saccharine.

Similarly, I once went to a demonstration of the oud. After hearing a number of intricate melodies played, one of the audience members asked if it were possible to play chords on the instrument. Sure, said the lecturer, and strummed a "c" chord. It sounded positively mundane. What had changed in the way I heard music in that short space of time?  Perhaps music, like food or wine has "acquired tastes" and we just have to keep listening until we start to enjoy it. These days, though, when we tend not to make that effort…how many wonderful flavors do we miss out on?

I'm so excited to tell you that we just received a big shipment of programs about Central Asian music through the Aga Khan Foundation. Although the geostrategic importance of Central Asia is rising by the minute, it has not been spotlighted in the mainstream media very much, although here at Link TV we've been showing music videos from Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan for years. Now, we have even more to bring you from this fascinating area. It is indeed one of the last bastions of an ancient and rich culture that was shaped by the Silk Route. These programs take you into the day-to-day and spiritual lives of the inhabitants, while opening a door to places we should all know more about. Stay tuned for these remarkable programs...and as we head into our crucial pledge week, I hope you'll take some time to make a donation to Link TV.