Letters To My Best Friend, by Qais Essar

Letters To My Best Friend

by Qais Essar

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1.	The Hurt 03:38	buy track
2.	To Mars And Back 03:48	buy track
3.	Ahesta Boro 02:08	buy track

about

Art As Catharsis is proud to announce the release of Qais Essar’s new EP, Letters To My Best Friend – three heartfelt, unique tracks that accentuate Essar’s love of the rabab and diversity as a composer.

On Letters To My Brief Friend, Essar draws influence from musicians from East and West alike, from Steve Reich’s compositional flair, to the soaring vocals of Afghanistan’s Ustad Sarahang; from the melancholic folk of Nick Drake and Devendra Banhart; to the legendary classical sarod of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. The result is a sublime instrumental narrative which envelops listeners with nuance, depth and emotional power.

“With every release I am still ever so trying to push the rabab instrument to new limits, sonically along with my approach to playing it,” says Essar. “Be it giving departing from the traditional staccato style of play and creating a vocal style, where I try to emulate the human voice, or new techniques that I picked up from other instruments."

"The Hurt features the first time where you can hear tapping on the rabab. This along with the use of harmonics, triads, etc, I lifted from guitar. Compositionally it is still continuing the conversation forward that my rabab has had with the world around us - blazing the middle path between worlds, drawing from my experiences with both eastern and western classical, prog, freak folk, and jazz.”

Essar’s penchant for instrumental storytelling captures the imagination in a far more powerful way than words ever could, possibly the reason behind his continued success in music, film and theatre.

His accomplishments include a Canadian Screen Award for Best Achievement in Music, composing for Golden Globe and Oscar nominated film The Breadwinner – directed by Nora Twomey and produced by Angelina Jolie – along with working on performance musicals and live theatre in Brooklyn, New York where his talents generate a wistful atmosphere second to none.

Again, on Letters to My Best Friend, Essar continues to evolve his award-winning style of playing to new heights – spectacularly covering new forms of instrumental, compositional and emotional diversity in the process.

credits

released October 25, 2019

Produced By: Qais Essar
Mix: Qais Essar, Eric Zang (Phoenix)
Mastering: Justin Gray (Toronto)

"The Hurt", "To Mars and Back" (Q. Essar)
"Ahesta Bero" (Traditional)

All Rights Reserved
2019 © Qais Essar

Qais Essar - Rabab, Ukulele, Guitar, Organ, Tanpura
Neelamjit Dhillon - Tabla
Eric Zang- Daf
Bryan Wilson - Cello
Justin Gray - Bass Veena
Derek Gray- Drums

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Art As Catharsis Melbourne, Australia

A humble Australian record label with a love for music that is progressive, psychedelic, or different.

North American store: www.athousandarmsstore.com/collections/artascatharsis

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