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Swaras was formed in June 2009 in Toronto, Canada. The whole idea of Swaras’ music is based on amalgamating “World Music” with eastern vocals which was never done before anywhere in the world the way Swaras is doing it.
The idea behind is to sing eastern classical vocals with all the western instruments but to add a specialized country’s instrument in each of their compositions. For instance Swaras’ first track ‘Aag Kuch Aysi Lagi’ was fused with African Conga Drums, their second song ‘Jo Tum Kaho’ was mixed with Italian Violin, third which is 'Kya Khushi' has Spanish guitars and so on. Each of their compositions consists of one country’s instrument and is never repeated. It is a very challenging task to make this happen since many musical instruments are on different scales and not always go well with regular eastern singing or ‘Raag’ base ‘Gaiki’ hence Swaras’ slogan ‘Let the music be free from borders’. Both their tracks (Aag Kuch Aysi Lagi & Jo Tum Kaho) are selected at "The National Library of Archives" in Ottawa Canada which is a great honor for a new band to achieve at such an early stage.
Swaras has also provided the musical score for a short film called “Celebrate” which is in English, shot in Germany by the famous director/producer/writer Noontay. The score includes the concept, direction including some Alaap like vocals. The music has a very mystical feel to it similar to what Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahib did in ‘Dead Man Walking’. The film is currently being sent to the German and Canadian film festivals but can be watched online at IMDB.com. The link is: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1737295385/
Last but not the least ‘’Jo Tum Kaho’’ has been on radio in Pakistan, India, UK, Canada, USA, UAE, Luxembourg and the video is currently playing on TV One in Canada (Rogers Cable channel# 857) and on AAG, ARY MUZIK, MTV, Play, Oxegene, ATV, K2, G-Kaboom in Pakistan.
Asad Q. (lead vocalist/composer & founder of Swaras)
Asad is a student of eastern classical music, his guru is ‘M. Munir Ahmad’ (who is a student of Tufail Niazi, Hameed Sheikh (Ustad Barkat Ali Khan Sahib’s student) and Prof. Dr. Paramjeet Singh).
Hassan Bokhari (lead guitarist/composer & backing vocals)
A multi-talented musician who is playing rhythm, lead and bass guitars, drums and keyboards for the past 10 years, was in a progressive rock band call Insomia.
Website: http://www.musicofswaras.com/
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.comgroup.php/?gid=118190346292&ref=ts
Facebook Fan page: http://www.facebook.com/musicofswaras
MySpace: www.myspace.com/musicofswaras |
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