Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - Night Song / vinyl LP

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook's Night Song arrived in 1996 as a Grammy-nominated meeting of Pakistani qawwali and Michael Brook's atmospheric production, and it still sounds like a thoughtful attempt to open devotional music to a wider audience without flattening its intensity. Brook had already worked with Nusrat on Mustt Mustt, but here the partnership feels more spacious and inward-looking, giving Nusrat's soaring voice room to move through drones, Hammond organ, harmonium and low-slung guitar textures.

What makes Night Song especially compelling is the balance between tradition and studio design. The album was written by Brook and Nusrat together, apart from the title track, which is credited to Nusrat alone, and the arrangements frame his improvisations rather than crowd them. Guest players including Caroline Dale on cello, Dildar Hussain on tabla, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan on harmonium and Mick Karn on bass help shape a sound that can feel meditative one moment and rhythmically insistent the next.

This 30th anniversary edition also matters because it brings the album to vinyl for the first time. With renewed interest in Nusrat's catalogue following 2024's Chain of Light, Night Song stands as one of the defining cross-cultural records of its moment: accessible, exploratory, and still deeply centred on the power of Nusrat's singing. Updated liner notes and previously unseen photographs make this edition a strong way back into a singular collaboration.