The Sketches, a Sindh-based band singing multilingual Sufi poetry, gave an enthralling performance at the official launch of their second Sufi music album, ‘You’ (Tu), last week at Lok Virsa in Islamabad. The band claims its music is an attempt to connect with one’s self.

The performance was arranged in collaboration with Indus Cultural Forum, a group run by Sindhis aiming to promote culture and harmony. The Sketches’ second album comprises folk, rock, alternative, pop, Sufi, and some tribal arrangements. According to the band, many languages in the new album are representative of Pakistan’s cultural diversity.

Almost 13 years old, the band is among the pioneers of sufi folk rock with compositions of young musicians and the lead vocalist Saif Samejo, Sindh which has centuries’ long history of Sufi poetry and music always has been a major inspiration for the band.

The last album is the result of six years of hard work and collaborations, and has songs in different languages in the lineup. The album comprises 13 numbers in different languages including Urdu, Sindhi, Seraiki, and Marwari. Mein Sufi Hoon Sarmasta (I am a Sufi, the ecstatic one), Mann Moriya (O peacock! What words you utter at midnight that I lose all my sleep) and Neend Ki Naiyya (A dream in a little boat sleep) remained the most popular.

"Music has been my medium of expression since childhood. I derived inspiration visiting different shrines in my school days," thirty-two-year-old Saif Samejo tells The News on Sunday, recalling how often he used to go to a Hindu temple close to his neighbourhood in his early years to enjoy temple music.

"At different shrines, I had a chance to listen to different types of Sufi music from time to time," he says.

His interest in music became serious when he was a student of English literature when he sketched this band and named it The Sketches.

The first album was released in 2010 titled Dastkari with folk, Sufi and rock songs in Sindhi, Seraiki and Urdu, bearing a strong message of peace, harmony and humanity and showing a rich cultural heritage. The album was released in collaboration with Geo television. The band also performed a song ‘Mandh’ in Coke Studio Season 4.

This non-commercial band is also known as a poetic rebellion. Indus Cultural Forum organised this performance, thinking that Sufi music is the need of the hour -- it is easy to relate to because it is indigenous and can bring peace and tolerance in society.

The band has also performed in the US. In its early years, the group travelled all over Pakistan performing in underground concerts. The lead vocalist has no formal training in music. The Sketches has sung poetry of Sachal Sarmast, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Khawaja Ghulam Fareed, Hassan Dars, Sardar Shah and many other Sufi poets.

"The most important thing about our music is that it creates questions in the minds of people. It is not rebellion but a straight path. This form of music and poetry reminds us that we are human beings and all these things representing nature around us are related to us," says Samejo.

He laments the existence of so much inequality in Pakistan and says that having a state religion is also a problem. "For equality, state should act like a mother. Such form of music gives a sense that we as human beings are above these state boundaries."