Mekaal Hasan of Mekaal Hasan Band - a major force behind the all-new Koblumpi Music Festival that made its debut last year in Lahore and took place in Islamabad earlier this year - has been propelled to work on multiple projects as plans for Koblumpi Karachi chapter had to be put on hold due to coronavirus.

Apart from producing tracks on Bayaan’s new album Suno (with Rakae Jamil and Farhan Zameer being the other two producers respectively), Mekaal Hasan revealed to Instep that proper videos of each artist who performed at Koblumpi will be given to them so that they have material they can call their own and release it when they wish to do so.

Mekaal Hasan Band also plans to release at least three videos from Koblumpi’s Islamabad chapter, giving listeners an exposure to the live music sound and performance that was put up by the band, especially for fans unable to make it to do the festival.

But Koblumpi’s only one of the many things Mekaal Hasan has worked on. Another major project is a multicultural album with British-Asian acclaimed world jazz music bassist Shez Raja, who has been associated with acts like Trilok Gurtu, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker and Wayne Krantz and has earned critical acclaim time and time again.

The record is called Tales from the Punjab. As Shez shared with Instep, he is finalizing the upcoming album; he had been on a personal quest to explore his music and cultural roots. Having spent some time in Lahore with a group of classical musicians, both young and veteran, they immersed themselves in “ancient ragas, traditional melodies and free improvisations to create a bridge between cultures with beautiful exotic and timeless sounds.”

Tales from the Punjab, according to Shez Raza, features him on bass and Fiza Haider on vocals, Ahsan Pappu (MHB veteran) on bansuri, Zohaib Hassan on sarangi, Kashif Ali Dani on tabla and Qammar Abbas on cajon. Produced by Shez Raja, it has been recorded live at Mekaal Hasan’s Digital Infidelity Studios in Lahore, Pakistan where it was also engineered, mixed and mastered by Mekaal Hasan.

Out of the process, an idea for another multicultural album has been born that will feature Mekaal Hasan, Ahsan Pappu of MHB, Shez Raja and a host of other artists. More on this later Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye album and short film released.

British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed, who is also known as Riz MC and is associated with the rap unit Swet Shop Boys, broke through the global scene with the limited series, The Night Of. Having won an Emmy as well as a series of awards for his performance, he went on to work in several high profile Hollywood projects such as Jason Bourne, Venom, a Star Wars offshoot original film and in HBO’s finale season of Girls. He even made the cover of Time magazine in 2017.

Riz Ahmed is aware of the systemic racism that follows immigrants everywhere. To that end, he wrote an essay called Typecast as a Terrorist that resonated with a huge degree of people and picked up great reviews.

Taking his stardom to highlight stories of immigrants and people of colour in massive fashion, Riz Ahmed had announced that he would be writing a series for the BBC as well as an album along with a short film called The Long Goodbye.

In associated with WePresent, an offshoot of WeTransfer, Riz Ahmed has released The Long Goodbye film and the album that goes with it. Both the record and the film are meant to represent a break-up, not with a person, but a country.

While the short film is available for viewing online at WePresent, Riz Ahmed post-script described The Long Goodbye, the album, not as a regular stream of break-up songs between two people.

“The record is a breakup album – but with your country,” Riz told Dazed Digital. “So many of us feel like we’re being dumped by the place we call home, a home that we built. This album takes you on the journey of this breakup; through the stages of denial, anger, acceptance, and finally self-love to counter the hate.”

Among the songs featured on the album is a single called ‘Toba Tek Singh’, inspired by Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story while another song ‘Shikwa (The Breakup)’ is inspired by the poetry of Allama Iqbal.

Showcased in the United Kingdom’s Houses of Parliament, both the record and film is bound to resonate ubiquitously with listeners/viewers due to its subject - around the world. Watch out for an album review in this space. 

The film is available for viewing at the WePresent platform while the complete album is available for streaming at YouTube and Spotify.