he last leg of 2019, December, has witnessed a great deal of music release. Janoobi Khargosh was not the only act to drop a full-scale record. One other band, at minimum, who managed this accomplishment – and it is one, given how full-length album expectations from most mainstream artists seems to be a hopeless case – is The Sketches.

Strings were the only exception, in recent months, to release their sixth studio album, 30 (Tees). 2020 does look promising, but more on it another time.

Coming back to The Sketches, the line-up has evolved since the first and second album.

Long Live Bhittai

For Saanjhi, Saif Samejo took on the role of vocalist, lyricist, and composer while Nomi Ali, the band’s chief guitarist, focused on musical arrangements; drums and percussions featured are mostly studio mix and Umesh Pandit from Nepal is featured on the flute.

Combined, this is The Sketches at their best because they’re attempting new things on the album, one of those being Saif Samejo choosing to write lyrics and not only featuring the verses of the late Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai or even Bulleh Shah.

For another thing, it feels inspired by nature in all its colours, romance, Sufi thought, beautiful imagery (ft. in the videos ‘Ishq Laga, Mann Jaga’, ‘Faani Aur Baqa’) among other things. If the former videos are aesthetically designed music videos with a great deal of soul, tracks like ‘Ram Kali’ were first featured on Lahooti Live, which is the iteration of the band’s vision, highlighting indigenous folk music. It is something they accomplish on this album as a unit as well but with more nuance than previous records.

‘Ishq Laga, Mann Jaga’ is the perfect album opener with a stunning flute solo, which is followed by the most delicate tones as Samejo begins singing in a combination of Sindhi, Hindi and Siraiki. The lyrics, a mix by Saif Samejo and the verses of Bhittai, go at one point, “Main Soya/Mann Jaga/Zat-e-Dharam Saab Jhoot Musafir/Apna Khuda Mann Jaga/Main Soya Mann Jaga” and you know that the band has created a powerful image, with evocative words, given colours by flute, guitars, percussion; its simplicity is its greatest success.

‘Panchion Ka Gaon’ with lyrics in Urdu and Hindi conjures a world and asks you to leave behind yours and lie on the grass and head to the village of birds. It’s a celebration of all that nature has to offer before becoming a fancy, groovy musical number with an architecture that changes on you. The bass is shining. It’s a dream-like song that invites you and asks nothing of you except for going to this very world that is around you, if you’re willing to see and abandon the rest.

The title track, ‘Saanjhi’ (in Sindhi), with poetry by Hassan Dars, is darker, both in the sonic world it creates and the vocalist who sounds very different than the abovementioned track. The flute returns on this song, giving it that perfect ending.

‘Faani Aur Baqa’, a song sung in Urdu with poetry by Hazrat Razi Saeen, is a love letter of hope and romance and the sweetest track on the album. But it’s not overdramatic, with electric guitars almost in the background and acoustic taking centerstage.

In fact, this is a display of serious skill; The Sketches are not only good performers but the years have led to musical ideas that are not archaic but continue to play hide and seek with you.

Several people have contributed to the record besides Nomi and Saif; they include Roshan Sharma from Nepal, who played the Mohan Veena and Classical Guitar (acoustic/nylon); Subash from Nepal, who played bass, arpeggio (acoustic) with Atif Kalyar playing rhythm guitars and solo (electric) and Umesh Pandit on flute.

Saanjhi [recorded, mixed, mastered at Lahooti studios, Jamshoro and remastered at Jonathan Manson, Kitchen Sink studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US] has cohesion to the sound of the album that’s well-thought out with crisp production that must be agreed upon as a giant triumph.

Some songs feel like you’re floating; others make you wonder as you get surprised by a world of languages and poetic verses. A beloved comes to mind; the mystery of the universe and the natural order to things. That’s just my mind; you might hear something completely different. And that’s the magic of it.

You don’t have to know Sindhi or Saraiki to automatically fall in love with this album; it just compels you. At the same time, it’s introducing us to both poets we may or may not have heard of and giving the message that nature beckons. You have to be open to it. And you will find yourself in a village of birds, with trees and grass calling you to join them. It also offers Sufi philosophic ideas that, when explored and thought upon, make all the sense in the world. It’s a soft album in many ways, almost delicately balanced and maybe that was done by choice. But what it hopes to say has a higher meaning. It’s therefore a very beautiful surprise from a band that hasn’t given up on music even as it makes room to highlight others via platforms like Lahooti Melo.

Whether this year’s theme, #EcoNotEgo (Lahooti Melo) inspired the album or the album was inspired by the theme is something only the band can attest to but with Saanjhi, all you really want is hope that the band will be given opportunities to play it in front of as many people as possible, including the upcoming Lahooti Melo next month on February 14, 15 and 16. I truly hope The Sketches take centerstage.

– Album cover designed by Haroon Habib