It was a sunday morning in April 1991, myself and producer Bally Sagoo were looking forward to the imminent arrival of an actual living legend…the world renowned qawali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

It was a big deal, Bally and his label Oriental Star were hoping to get enough vocals for an album, but he was only available for a few hours before flying back to Pakistan.

Right on time Nusrat arrived with his brother and manager, and label boss Mr Ayuub and brother Farook. After a few introductions and some Indian tea it was straight to work. Nusrat had several songs prepared for the session. As he ran through the first song in the controlroom, myself and Bally would work out the bpm and quickly get a guide drum beat and a dolki loop playing on the computer. Then Nusrat would go into the live room for the actual recording. He was pleased to see an AKG C414 mic as he’d used one many times before. After a brief level and headphone check we were ready to go. Nusrat was in his normal sitting position wearing headphones and with the mic set back a little to allow for the power of his voice and his hand movements.

Take one … playback … job done!

That was the pattern for all six songs, one take each time. Many singers will tell you they did this song and that song in one take, but infact this is very rare. Actually we did do a second take on one song, but that was at Nusrat’s own request (it sounded perfect to us).

Half way through the session there was a lunch break, during which Nusrat received several prominent Pakistani guests, most notably the top class cricketer Imran Khan (who later became prime minister of Pakistan).

All in all, an excellent day’s work!

The music production process for the album started the very next day. Bally and all the team at Planet Studios were very keen to get involved with such a high calibre vocalist (even Michael Jackson was known to be a big admirer of his voice).  Bally Sagoo pushed his Dj knowledge to the limit to find just the right beat and basic groove to suit each song. Then it was down to Paul Civil, Jim Lantsbery and myself to compose and play all the parts. and work on the sounds and the mix until Mr Sagoo was satisfied. Two months and 300 studio hours later we had an album everyone was proud of, and its worldwide success was very pleasing for all involved. Years later we learned that this was the only time Nusrat’s voice had been recorded on its own (apart from his Peter Gabriel work), as all his other albums were recorded singing live in the same room as his musicians (meaning no possibility to do a later remix).

There has been multiple requests from Bollywood film producers over the years to remix these vocals for their latest movies, but since Bally removed the multitrack tapes in 1995 it has been mysteriously not possible to locate them.

Tom Lowry