Arooj Aftab

"Vulture Prince" (2021) brought Arooj Aftab international attention: an atmospherically dense, meditative, sad album with echoes not only of jazz, but also of minimal music, the traditions of her native Pakistan and Urdu poetry. Although the composer/singer has lived in the USA for a long time and her role models are hard to pin down - from Abbey Lincoln to Jeff Buckley, Julius Eastman, Meshell Ndegeocello and Morton Feldman - it is not least poets such as Rumi, Mirza Ghalib and Hafeez Hoshiarpuri who inspire her melancholy music. She recorded the fantastic "Love in Exile" with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily. She has won a Grammy and played at all the major festivals. Her new solo album "Night Reign" is accompanied by a transformation: "In the past few years," she told the New York Times, "I felt this joy inside me. It would be unfair if that wasn't reflected in my music."