Ghazalaw

Ghazalaw, the eponymous debut album from the Wales / India collaboration, is the latest album to be released on Cerys Matthews' record label 'Marvels of The Universe'. Ghazalaw is a sublime musical meeting between acclaimed Indian ghazal singer-musician Tauseef Akhtar from Mumbai and Gwyneth Glyn, one of Wales' leading singer-songwriters from Cricieth, North Wales. A musical love-match, Ghazalaw is the marriage of two great traditions of love poetry and traditional music: the ghazal singing of the Indian sub-continent and the folk song of Wales. Though at first glance distant relations, dig deeper and you discover that the Welsh folk and Indian ghazal traditions evolve from ancient poetic forms, specifically, linguistically, Sanskrit. Tauseef Akhtar served a ten year 'apprenticeship' with the greatest ghazal singer of modern times, the 'King of Ghazal' Jagjit Singh. Gwyneth Glyn is steeped in the linguistic and poetic richness of her homeland, inspired by the landscape of Wales and centuries of tradition. Yet she stands at the forefront of a new Welsh generation keen to seek out and celebrate all the many affinities that tie two distant parts of the world together. Tauseef and Gwyneth are joined from India by Ashish Jha (tabla), Manas Kumar (violin) and Sanjoy Das (guitar), and from Wales by Georgia Ruth (harp, vocals) who earned two BBC Radio 2 Folk awards nominations in 2014 following the release of her debut album Week Of Pines. Developed with the support of Wales Arts International, Arts Council Wales and Welsh Government, working in partnership with Air India.