Aswad enchants listeners through mystic songs
The stage of Allaince Francaise de Chittagong (AFC) was illuminated by a dazzling performance of Aswad, a Sufi band, who enchanted the audiences by their songs and instrumental charisma.
The show was arranged by the band members for launching their studio album “Bidhi” at the AFC auditorium on Thursday.
The show began with an instrumental arrangement of Bengali folk tune “Haar Kala”. They performed several instrumental arrangements of native folk tunes throughout the performance. The folk songs they selected to perform were all related to the theme love, whether it is romance or a tragedy.
The bands front-man Mohsin said they practice Sufism through music- which is purely a teaching of love. “It doesn't matter if it is for God or for human being, as long as love matters- you are on the way to become a Sufi,” he said.
The musicians also performed several of their original songs with a unique blend of Bengali modern music and Western rock music with the sound of saxophone dominating throughout the songs' melodic structure.
But the band members think the term 'fusion' would not be appropriate for determining the band's sound.
“As fusion comes from the combining of different artistic nuances from different genres, we don't walk the same path. We are much focused on what we do and our musical style is derived from both occidental and oriental modern music we listened while growing up,” said Mohsin.
Some songs they performed like “Alo” and “Rakhlam Jare Ei Ontore' were from their newly released album 'Bidhi'- which means 'God'.
“Sufism is the practice of love for God and His creation. Our songs in the album encompass many different themes. All these themes can be merged into a single theme 'love'. Since you can express your love for God through everything He created, we named the album 'Bidhi' as an offering to the Almighty,” said the band members.
The musicians expressed their practice of spiritual songs as a way to purify soul and mind. “All members in the group think the same way about our lives and society. And we think our music can bring peace to peoples' mind encouraging them to live lovingly in the society.”