Sana Ali
Lahore
Sings almost under her breath, and somehow that is the loudest thing in the room.
The team
Thepeopleyouareactuallylisteningto
Everything on this site was made by a small group of people who mostly work at night. Here is who they are, and what each of them does when the red light goes on.
The voices
Whoeverissinging,thestoryisreal
Open a portrait to sit with someone a little longer, then go and hear what they did with it.
Arslan Imdad
Karachi
Came to ghazal the long way round, through a guitar and a lot of bad nights.
Faiza Sajjad
Islamabad
Writes the verse first and worries about whether it is singable afterwards.
Ehsan Imdad
Multan
A qawwali upbringing that never quite left, bent into something much quieter.
Ali Imdad
Rawalpindi
Keeps the room noise in. Says a song without a room in it sounds like nobody sang it.
Behind the glass
Theworkthatnevergetsaphotograph
Writing
Somebody sits with a story that is not theirs until they can say it in eight lines without flinching. Most of a song is decided here, long before anyone sings it.
Recording
One room, a good microphone and the patience to wait for the take that means it. The job is knowing when to stop rather than when to fix.
Arranging
Deciding what to leave out. A guitar, a little air, and the restraint to let a line finish before anything else comes in.
Filming
The video songs and the photographs on this site come from the same few hands, which is why the light in them looks like it belongs to one place.
If you sing, and this sounds like you
We are not open for sign ups and there is no form to fill in. But if you have written something honest and you want it heard, tell us about it and we will listen properly.