Ustad Saami has been played on NTS in shows including WOMAD PRESENTS PETER GABRIEL, featured first on 18 July 2019. Songs played include Twilight, Longing and True Notes (“Happy Morning”).

Pakistani singer Ustad Saami is the last known surviving practitioner of the modal form of khayal technique, devotional music pre-dating the better-known qawwali style. Khayál translates as “imagination” and stems from the Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana music school, based on mystical Sufi poetry.

Saami, whose name translates “to hear”, continues a daily routine of exercises, from 4 AM to midday, to preserve this ancient technique. He is regarded as the last living surti master, or…