Artists: Momina Mustehsan with Usman Sohail (from Mohenjo Daro)
Song: Sajna
Album: Junoon’s 20th Anniversary
All the instruments (live & sequenced) were done by Usman, arranged by Usman and Momina, mixed by Usman and Xulfi, and mastered by Xulfi.
Tag: EMI
Mekaal Hasan stands tall in the tight knit Pakistani rock scene which is eagerly awaiting Saptak, his band’s second album. EMI will release the album in India soon, so fans across the subcontinent will get a chance to judge how far the Mekaal Hasan Band has grown since its first album, Sampooran.
Hasan, who headlines his band, infuses Punjabi themes with Western Jazz influences. The band’s composition practically makes it a requirement. The lead singer is Javed Bashir, supported by the flutist Papu and by Hasan on guitar. Bashir and Papu come from a traditional folk and classical background, while Hasan brings Western jazz sensibilities – he was trained at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.
When we asked Mekaal Hasan, “Why are Waris Shah and Sanwal on Saptak Record”, these were his words:
“If you remember the record that was supposed to come out was Andholan. However, since we were signed to EMI, they had no idea what to do with the kind of record Andholan was. The band had plenty of material written and thus decided to incorporate that material for EMI and hence the record Saptak. The reason for those 2 songs being there was because Waris Shah has a video for it and EMI wanted to run that on this record. Sanwal is there as a reggae version which we’ve been playing for 2 years so we decided to document that version. I hope you enjoy the new record. It was a lot of hard work but also lots of fun.”