By Maheen Sabeeh
Salt Arts, the Karachi-based music and performing arts company hit the landmark of crossing 75 shows last year (since starting out in 2015). With a new year, a new (curated) season is upon us and it begins with Fake Shamans. The Lahore-based duo (whom you can learn a lot more about on Salt Arts Instagram page) also run their own label, Fake Rituals and have a tribal/percussion heavy soundscape.
The live music production company is beginning its season with the popular duo; the event is open to couples and women audiences only. With limited capacity and rights of admission reserved, Salt Arts is trying to make sure the audience doesn’t experience any untoward incident.
Given Fake Shamans’ global collaborations in the past, expect this Saturday night to be a worthy music affair. This edition of Salt Nights is scheduled to take place at the iconic Beach Luxury Hotel on February 8 as an outdoor event from 7: 30 pm to 11: 30 pm.
Fake Shamans will be followed by Salt Soiree 35 ft. emerging singer-songwriter Maria Unera, who will be joined by Zahid Ali Qureshi (of Tamaasha) and Ajay Harry (a Salt Arts regular feature). The limited capacity event will also feature electronic producer Tollcrane (Talha Asim Wynne). The latter, a graduate of Red Bull Music Academy (Tokyo, 2014) has some delicious EPs to his name including Pink Passport and The Last Days of Lo-Fi, among others. Scheduled to take place on February 12 at Cotie Rotie, it will be held outdoors as well and will begin from 8:30 pm to 11: 00 pm.
This brings us to the third big live production of February 2020 from Salt Arts, titled ‘Na Kaam Ishq Ke Naam’ that is set to feature Strings, the biggest pop band in the country, and Shamoon Ismail, the second big hitter at Super Salt 2019 (after Meesha Shafi) and the conjurer of Jutt Blues-meets-ambient. Playing in the same show in Karachi on February 22, later this month, ‘Na Kaam Ishq Ke Naam’ is also scheduled to begin from 7: 30 pm to 11: 30pm.
With Strings having dropped their sixth studio album, Tees (30) with ‘Raat Shabnami’ being the last single and Shamoon Ismail having dropped Magic and Brown Sugar last year and a new single called ‘Rung’ in 2020, the music will be a mix. It won’t be artists riding on coattails of nostalgia and memories and past glory alone, but hopefully will be much more dynamic. Watch out.
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