abi sampa + rushil ranjan + orchestral qawwali

It feels fitting that my first post in this category centers on Abi Sampa and Rushil Ranjan. Their work did more than introduce me to new music. It reshaped how I experience culture and the spaces where cultures meet. As an American-born Pakistani girl who grew up listening to Nusrat, their music gives sound to a very specific kind of multicultural life.

From the moment I heard Man Kunto Maula, it became a permanent fixture in my playlist. Long before it became the soundtrack to Mahira Khan’s love story, I had already claimed it as the musical background to my own. 

Then I heard Piya Ghar. That song expanded my understanding of what art can do to a person. It cracked my heart open and altered my brain chemistry. The first time I heard it, I played it on loop, floating just beyond this world.

The best music transports you somewhere else. Abi and Rushil take you to another plane.

(For context, I am a Pisces.)

I cannot prove this, but I think their music is so beautiful because of the relationship between the two people making it. Ranjan’s arrangements are meticulously designed to honor Sampa’s capacity. As if music exists to meet her.

Sometimes, I think I even see love on Rushil’s face when Abi sings, in what she inspires him to believe is possible.

Ranjan discovered his musical talent later in life. In 2015, he encountered Sufi music and soon became self-taught. How lucky we all are, though I have wondered whether this discovery coincided with the time he met Sampa.

Turns out, it did.

In my head, Rushil learned this music for Abi. Studying it so he could understand her fully when she speaks in sound.

If none of this is true, I promise to write the screenplay. Until then, let a girl have her fanfic.

But even so, music this beautiful can only come from love. Love for each other. Love for the traditions they honor and the new worlds they imagine together. These two are legends in the making, artists we will watch create magic for decades to come.

(seeing them live with AR Rahman is on my vision board for 2026. i’ll report back. ✨)