Michel Gacso - Mashhad 2022

Worlds Within Worlds are proud to announce 'Afghan Music In Exile: Mashhad 2022', an album and film series featuring some of the most important classical and folk musicians of Afghanistan, who have been forced to leave their country due to persecution from the Taliban.

‘Afghan Music In Exile: Mashhad 2022’ is a unique release. Recorded In Mashhad in the northeast of Iran in May 2022, this album showcases the music of a culture facing an existential threat. To have recorded this work within Afghanistan would have been inviting attacks, arrest and torture, or worse still.

The project was produced and managed on the ground by film-maker and musician Michel Gasco (Badieh, Orontes), and co-produced by Lachlan Dale (Worlds Within Worlds, Hashshashin & Black Aleph). Gasco’s work with the Afghan community in Iran spans more than a decade, leading Michel to become a formal student of rubab maestro Nasim Khushnawaz.

This album is a snapshot in time, and captures performances from some of Herat’s most important musician families of the past century: Khushnawaz, Delahang and Hassanpour. Listeners will enjoy a variety of styles and instrumentation, including singer Asef Habibi’s performance of a Kabuli ghazal, an Afghan classical vocal piece from Jawad Tabesh, a classical Rubab performance from Vahid Delahang, a pure Herati folk track from the Rubab of Nasim Khushnawaz, and a Herati Dotar piece from Gholam Sakhi Rassouli. The album also includes a distinctive folk song composed by the famous singer Ustad Amir Mohammad and sung by his son, Aziz Ahmad Amiri.

The return of Taliban to power in August 2021 has been a disaster for musicians, bringing a fresh ban on the performance of music, and ushering in a new wave of persecution. Being deprived of their livelihood, many are destitute, with families close to starvation. Those who do try to practice their art face torture or worse. Many have been forced to flee the country if they have the means.

This is why we are proud to present this project, helping amplify the voices of Afghan musicians, so that they are not forgotten in this difficult time. All profits from this release will go directly back to the artists involved. We're hoping to not only provide money to Afghan musicians in a difficult and uncertain time, but to also play a small part in helping maintain the rich musical traditions of Afghanistan.

‘Afghan Music In Exile: Mashhad 2022’ is a project of great importance. Not only does this release hope to raise the plight of Afghan musicians, and to share the rich musical traditions that the country has to offer, but all profits will go directly back to the musicians involved - many of whom are in a precarious situation. This album is one of a kind, and a celebration of a great culture that has been under unbearable pressure with extremists trying to silence it.

'Afghan Music In Exile: Mashhad 2022' is out 23 June 2023 on Worlds Within Worlds. The first single, Tarane by Jawad Tabesh, is out 12 May.

Tracklist
1 Aziz Ahmad Amiri - Astan e To Boose Gahe Man Ast
2 Vahid Delahang - Rag Sohni
3 Jawad Tabesh - Tarane
4 Nasim Khoshnawaz & Gholam Sakhi Rasuli - Leili Leili
5 Asef Habibi - Feraq
6 Nasim Khushnawaz - Aghrabe Zolfe Kajat
7 Gholam Sakhi Rasuli - Chaharbeiti Siahmu Wa Jalali / Abshari Herati

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Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy is a highly respected and experienced musical selector and curator,
founder of the album listening event and content hub Classic Album Sundays and an authority
on music, sound and the vinyl renaissance. She was mentored by David Mancuso at his
seminal Loft parties in New York City. Together they co-produced the compilation series David
Mancuso Presents The Loft and worked together on David’s record label The Loft Audiophile

Library of Music. In 2000, David told Time Out New York City “ She is very devoted and very
pure about the music. She’s one of the only people I would trust, both with the music and with
the equipment, to fill in for me.” She is one of the musical hosts at The Loft, the co-founder of
the Lucky Cloud Loft parties in London and DJs internationally on the world’s best sound
systems and dance floors.
Classic Album Sundays tells the stories behind the albums that have shaped our culture and in
some cases, our lives. Colleen founded Classic Album Sundays as a stance against the
increasing devaluation of music and sound. What began as a passion project is now the
world’s most popular album listening event with satellites in four continents and the website
and social media channels host content on classic albums and artists such as interviews,
videos, playlists and more.  BBC Breakfast Television remarked, “Classic Album Sundays treat
our best-loved records like great symphonies.”
She has been a radio host and DJ since the age of fourteen and today hosts Balearic Breakfast,
Cosmodelica and Classic Album Sundays Worldwide on Worldwide FM. She also wrote, co-
produced and hosted the Classic Album Sundays series ‘This Women’s Work’ for PRX, ‘Sounds
of a City’ series on BBC 6 Music and ‘Turntable Tales’ on BBC Radio 4. As a producer Colleen
has remixed Roisin Murphy, Mildlife, The Rapture, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Beardyman, Candi
Staton, Two Bears, Phenomenal Handclap Band, Cantoma, Horace Andy, Chaka Khan & more
under her Cosmodelica moniker and as DarkStarr Diskotek with Ashley Beedle. Along with
former Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas, she recorded and produced as Wild Rumpus.