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PLEASE NOTE, THIS GIG WILL BE HELD AT LEWES CON CLUBA rare opportunity to see a unique maestro perform : virtuosic playing of an extremely unusual instrument (electic Benju) from a fascinating part of the world (Makran coastal border of Pakistan/Iran) playing rarely-heard long-form spiritual dance music (Balochi).
“Bakhsh’s trills and cascading improvisations are guided by the unending pursuit of beauty, the simultaneous embrace of sorrow and transcendence (…) It’s the kind of music that leaves you grasping for the spiritual and indefinable, that burrows into your soul and glows there!!” PITCHFORK
After his first ever UK gig in March, a sell out show at Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank) in London, we are extremely excited to be hosting his trio show at the Con Club in Lewes! The seated QEH performance ended up as a riotous dance party with EVERYONE out of their seats and moving to the stunning music.
Ustad Noor Bakhsh, from Balochistan, Pakistan, is a legendary maestro of the Balochi Benju (a keyed Zither). In Pakistan he plays it through an amp powered by a car battery attached to a solar panel. He is well known throughout the Makran Coast (the coast which borders both Iran & Pakistan) but only garnered wider attention after his most recent recordings and videos. (see below)
Noor Baksh’s electric Benju tone and his melodic ornamentations may remind you of Ali Farka Toure’s style, with polyrhythmic grooves and improvisation that will make you move in very similar ways to the music of both West and East Africa. This is unsurprising, given the well documented migrations and seafaring, historical, intimacies between Balochistan (south east part of The Iranian plateau) and Africa, via the greater Indian Ocean.
“His music is incredible and his instrument is unusual, even in Pakistan,” Nabihah Iqbal
His debut album, ‘Jingul’, was released digitally in 2022, and on vinyl via Hive Mind Records in 2023.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Lewes Con Club, 139 High Street,Lewes, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Tickets
