Sounds from India and Pakistan

Mixtape
by Arshia Fatima Haq

Arshia Haq from the LA based Discostan collective made an exclusive mix for Norient titled «Line of Control». She is presenting us forgotten scores and current field sounds from India and Pakistan. Listen to this colorful mix and dive into the sounds of the Indian subcontinent.

Making a mix from the sounds of the subcontinent proved challenging as these are the sounds I am closest to, so I tried to use that to my advantage. What I came up with is a personal audio memoir, using scores from lesser known films, children's songs, and field recordings of my own in Pakistan and India (thus the raw quality of some of what you'll hear), and playing on nostalgia, exile, the tension between the sensuality of the soundtracks and the austerity of the religious dogma over loudspeakers (both Muslim and Hindu) as well as political broadcasts in these places.

Tracklist

1. Excerpt from Zinda Laash (Dracula in Pakistan)

2. Sohail Rana: «Al-Vida»

3. Pakistan Television Corporation news broadcast (archival)

4. Anupama Deshpande: «Laher Laher Chanchal Huyee»

5. Arshia Haq: «Birdcaged»

6. Excerpt from Pakeezah

7. Ahmad Zahir: «Instrumental»

8. DJ DrAk: «Love Mera Hit Hit» (Vocoder Remix)

9. Ilaiyaraaja: «Love Theme»

10. Pakistan air force demonstration (archival)

11. Runa Laila: «Romance»

12. Excerpt from Pakeezah

13. Nahid Akhtar: «Goli Naal Begi Aey»

14. «’Ek Anek Ekta’ Theme Song»

15. Ravi: «’Do Kaliyan’ Love Theme Music»

16. T.K. Ramamoorthy: «Ranjani»

17. Noor Jehan: «Disco Jugni»

18. Unknown: «Pashto saaz and attan»

19. Unknown: «Pashto saaz and dhol»

20. Tableeqi Jamaat sermon, Islamabad (field recording)

21. Azaan recitations (Muslim calls to prayer), India and Pakistan

22. Ayatul Kursi recitation, Bhit Shah, Pakistan (field recording)

23. Dawn Vedas, Andhra Pradesh, India (field recording)

24. Taliban on the ground, Waziristan, Pakistan (archival)

25. Qari Waheed Zafar: «Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi»

26. Aneesa Umme Habiba: «Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi»

27. Excerpt from Pakeezah

28. Ahmad Zahir: «Awateen Eshqam Tu Boodi»

Biography

Arshia Fatima Haq is Los Angeles based filmmaker, writer and DJ, and is the founder of Discostan, a collective of artists curating sound, image, and text from an imagined federation of states spanning the regions of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and eastward to the edge of the earth – from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay. Narrative threads include migration, celebration, warfare, nostalgia, homeland, borders, often within realms of Islamic influence, through the lenses of timeless traditional forms, the kaleidoscopic reinventions of pop culture, and everything in between and beyond. Most simply, Discostan is a love letter to the Dis-Orient.

Published on May 28, 2014

Last updated on August 11, 2020

Topics

Nostalgia
Religion
Soundscape
Tradition
All Topics
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