Ghazalaw is the result of three years of collaboration and experimentation through Welsh and Urdu between Mumbai based ghazal master, Tauseef Akhtar, and Welsh folk musician and writer, Gwyneth Glyn. The project was initiated and developed by Wales Arts International with support from Welsh Government and Arts Council of Wales lottery funds.
Following the recording of an album in 2014, Mwldan came on board to manage the collaboration and, in 2015, Ghazalaw, launched their album on Cerys Mathews’s new record label.
It has reached number one in the World Music charts and remained in the top 10 since 2016. It has also received significant profile in the UK and with strong reviews from the international music and mainstream press; live sessions on Radio 2 and 3 and a documentary on Radio 4; shortlisted for Radio 2 Folk Awards and the Songlines Music Award; headline act for WOMEX, the primary world music trade showcase.
A Wales and wider UK tour with the full band took place in 2016, reaching new and diverse audiences in theatres, festivals and community halls.
As a leading journalist (Andy Morgan) has commentated, ‘Ghazalaw is unique. It’s the inarticulate speech of the heart, voiced across cultures, continents and ages. It’s a record from the past, for the future’.