Ali Sethi and Nicolás Jaar – Intiha

Join us for the world premiere of Ali Sethi and Nicolás Jaar’s collaborative album Intiha, live at the Chan Centre.

Though the two artists seem to be from disparate worlds—Sethi is best known for his innovative takes on Hindustani classical music while Jaar produces electronic music—Intiha has been praised as a “moving tribute to the multiplicity of identity.” (Pitchfork)

The pair were introduced through a mutual friend. When Jaar heard the recordings of Sethi singing and experimenting with Jaar’s ambient album Telas, he was astonished by the result; this is what the album had been missing all along.

Sethi sings Urdu ghazals, an ancient poetic form that has its roots in the Arab world. In entwining the words of Sufi mystics with Jaar’s simmering soundscapes, Sethi takes Jaar’s otherworldly atmosphere and grounds it in decidedly human emotions. Odes to the pain of yearning are deeply felt in Sethi’s voice, his agony ringing with vibrato while sorrow arrives in whispers.

While much of the album deals in the reverie of loss, in Nicolás Jaar and Ali Sethi’s unlikely pairing, they have given us much to celebrate.