Swaying with the Verses

Hi! June, July and August were super busy, so I apologise for not writing full newsletters, I’ll send the monthly reviews for June and July with all the links for the radio shows that took place in those months too, I have so much share with you! The NTS shows with my sister in June, Ajoy Chakraborty in July, and Arnab Chakraborty being some wonderful highlights! The upcoming September episode of Nāda Sonics will mark 2 years on NTS. I will send a NTS special email to mark this, with links to all the shows and a small synopsis of each episode!

Raga Music Listings— September 2025

September has some pretty interesting gigs, Ganavya has already performed a sell-out gig at the Barbican and reviews have been really positive about the experience!

Shujaat Husain Khan, son of the legendary sitar player Ustad Vilayat Khan will be performing two gigs in the UK this month, definitely go see him. Those up north should go see the two gigs happening at The Glasshouse, Gateshead, firstly Tar Rang with Satwinder Pal Singh on sarangi, Kaviraj Singh on santoor, Upneet Singh and Rajvir Singh on tabla; and then the amazing Orchestra Qawwali Project with Rushil and Abi!

At the start of October Dialled In in association with the Barbican present the wonderful Ustad Noor Baksh, alongside Jaubi and Amrit Kaur. This is definitely going to sell-out so make sure you get your tickets straight away! I interviewed Noor Baksh, Daniyal Ahmed and Doshambay last year on Nāda Sonics, and it’s a lovely introduction to the musical tradition that they represent: Nāda Sonics W/ Sway of the Verses & Ustad Noor Bakhsh, Daniyal Ahmed and Doshambay

3 Oct 2025 / 19:30
Ustad Noor Bakhsh / Jaubi / Amrit Kaur
Barbican, London
Book Now: £35-£12

6 September 2025 / 19:00
Legacy of the Maestros
Shujaat Husain Khan – sitar
The Royal College of Music, London
Book Now: £95-45

7 September 2025 / 19:00
Legacy of the Maestros
Shujaat Husain Khan – sitar
The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
Book Now: £75-40

11 September 2025 / 20:30
Free Flow Classikal
Akash Parekar – sitar
Shiv Pattni – guitar
Harkiran Sahota – tabla
Karamel Club, London
Book Now: £15-£10

12 September 2025 / 18:30
Echoes of Tradition
Debasis Chakroborty – slide guitar
Sanju Sahai – tabla
Akram Khan – tabla
The Bhavan, London
Book Now: £35-£25

12 September 2025 / 20:00
Ananda Shankar - The Psychedlic Sitar
Performed In The Round by The Invocation Players featuring Tommy Khosla.
The Mildmay Club, London
Book Now: £15-£10

19 September 2025 / 20:00
Riverside Ragas:  Tar Rang – 100 Colours, 100 Strings
Satwinder Pal Singh – sarangi
Kaviraj Singh – santoor/vocal
Upneet Singh – tabla
Rajvir Singh – tabla
The Glasshouse, Gateshead
Book Now: £22.50-£11.30

20 September 2025 / 13:00
Midday Mantra: International Day of Peace
Satwinder Pal Singh – sarangi
Gurdain Singh Rayatt – tabla
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Book Now: £5

21 September 2025 / 14:00
Music In The Museum
Pete Yelding – sitar
Aparna Raguraman – violin
Janan Sathiendran – tabla
Wardown House,Luton
Book Now: £16.50

24 September 2025 / 13:00
Art of Classical Slide Guitar – A Workshop by Pandit Debasis Chakroborty
Debasis Chakroborty – slide guitar
The Bhavan, London
Book Now: £50-£32

25 September 2025 / 13:00
TABLA TALES: Unveiling the Secrets of Rhythm with Ustad Akram Khan
Akram Khan – tabla
The Bhavan, London
Book Now: £50-£32

25 September 2025 / 19:00
Mehfil – e – Rose Hill
Mandar Phatak – khyal vocal
Aparna Raguraman – violin
Junaid Ali – tabla
The Rose Hill, Brighton
Book Now: £16-£10

26 September 2025 / 13:00
Ameen Ali Khan & Himmet Bahra
Ameen Ali Khan – sarod
Himmet Bahra – tabla
St Martin in the Fields, London
Book Now: £10

27 September 2025 / 19:30
Orchestral Qawwali Project featuring Rushil Ranjan & Abi Sampa
Abi Sampa – vocal
Rushi Ranjan – composer/guitar
The Glasshouse, Gateshead
Book Now: £51-37.50

27 September 2025 / 19:30
Arya: concerto for sitar and orchestra
Jasdeep Singh Degun – sitar
St Cecilia Orchestra
Ripon Cathedral, Ripon
Book Now: £35-20

27 September 2025 / 19:30
Izhaar
Tauseef Akhtar – vocal
Shahbaz Hussain – tabla
Siher Nikzad – Harmonium
Satwinder Pal Singh – sarangi
Rehaan Akhtar – guitar
TMR, Wembley
Book Now: £35

29 Sep 2025 / 19:30
Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwals
Birmingham Town Hall, Birmingham
Book Now: £79-£29

30 Sep 2025 / 19:30
Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwals
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Book Now: £77-£20

3 Oct 2025 / 19:30
Ustad Noor Bakhsh / Jaubi / Amrit Kaur
Barbican, London
Book Now: £35-£12

*note… I don’t make any money or anything from these listings, I don’t even get guestlist (although I wouldn’t say no to guestlist… gigging is expensive!), I’m just doing it, because people need to know where to see live music.

What did I see/hear in August?

I have to make sure I take photos of all the events I go to… for this newsletter, but also so that I can remember what happened and where I went!

August was dominated with gigs, either going to them or playing them!

Awaaz a south asian dj collective formed from djs on the Voices Radio roster, have been doing a few takeovers on Voices and gigs, we did our second takeover at Bermondsey Bar & Kitchen, which was lots of fun, lots of different genres and a lovely flow throughout the takeover!

We Out Here 2025 was brilliant, check my instagram post for photos and video summarising the festival, and also scroll down for the link to the radio summary I did on Voices Radio with producer THEMPRESS. It was a privilege to open the Love Dancin’ tent for the legend Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphys Saturday lineup. We all indulged in listening to Raga Lalit a morning raga from 11am, on quite frankly one of the best sound systems I’ve heard. The selections consisted of dhrupad alap from the Dagar Brothers, Vilyat Khan with a Vilambit gat and then a drut jugalbandi with Kishori Amonkar & Hariprasad Chaurasia to finish off the Lalit section. With tracks over 20mins, I took the opportunity to sit next to Colleen and listen to the full majesty of the music (the monitors are amazing, but it doesn’t compare to sitting in the middle of the tent with all the speakers pointing towards you!). The set was recorded, so I’ll share it once I get the recording; I was really happy with the journey over the two hours, keeping a very chilled mellow vibe and raising the tempo ever so slightly every so often. It was nice to bring together raga and all the new music I’ve discovered over the last year into one neat package of vibes, but also for it to be normal playing raga music to a tent of music lovers… is something that brings me a tremendous amout of happiness! We had an impromtu yoga session during the set, led by my friend Isaac B which was lovely to see!

It was pretty amazing seeing so many friends djing and to see the collective levelling up over the last three years of everyone. It was lovely to see Melomanics (the wwfm chatroom gang that have been so supportive of everything that I’ve done) doing a set at Brawnswood, THEMPRESS warming up for Fabio and Grooverider with an amazing set and so many others all over the schedule! Definitely book tickets for 2026!

Zar was warming up for Ecca Vandal, so I got the chance to see her and her band absolutely kill it. Such a vibrant performance, definitely go see her if you get chance. Zar, was brilliant as always with a super warm-up set!

I was lucky enough to take party in Daytimers World, the 5th Birthday celebrations of the Daytimers Collective; an ambitious event with simultaneous parties in London, Manchester, Berlin, New York, Toronto and a few other places around the world! It was an amazing party, I didn’t get any cake though. ☹️ 

I only managed to fit in one gallery visit this month, ‘Alien Shores’ curated by Susanna Greeves and ‘Bakish Mai’ by Sara Flores at the White Cube; both exhibitions had some lovely pieces, one was a landscape being painted over by an airbrush robot.

Shop— Pre-Emptive Strike

In my proper job I’m a graphic designer/illustrator and make some pretty nice stuff, I’ve got a shop with some very nice t-shirts to sell, so please have a look and get some t-shirts!

Radio Shows

I only did two shows in August, but they were really nice shows. For Nāda Sonics on NTS, I spoke to sarod player Arnab Chakrabarty about his approach to raga music, his musical influences and he did a live session, playing two pieces.

The World is Sound on Voices Radio, was a review with producer THEMPRESS of We Out Here, a day after returning from a remarkable few days in field surrounded by musical excellence.

NTS

Voices Radio

September Radio Dates

130925 / 8am — NTS: Nāda Sonics
160925 / 11am — Voices Radio: The World is Sound
170925 / 12am — Sister Midight FM

My Gigs

A couple of exciting gigs this month! I’ll playing some raga music on a sound system in North London with the Felt Sound System Crew on 6 September for a daytime gig. And on 19 September, I’ll be joining Dom Ore! and Roberta Cutolo at Grow Hackney for a brilliant night of music at the Miles Away label party!

Music Recommendations

I could recommend everything I heard at We Out Here… but that list would be too long, so listen to the two amazing harpists, Nala Sinephro and Marysia Osu, who both were amazing at the festival!

The new album from Saul Williams and Carlos Nino & Friends is stunning, I’ve had it on repeat, just listen to everything they have to offer. Shri’s new album is a beautiful meditation on the bass, so many different layers and textures and lots of space.

Thank for making it to the end! I will compile and send the missing June and July reviews with links to all the radio shows during that period, so expect more newsletters this month And I’m going to send the listings for October earlier so you can book in more gigs into your calendar earlier! And please get in touch if there are gigs, exhibitions or music I need to go to or add to the listings!

Sway of the Verses