Coke Studio Season 5 Episode 4 continues musical exploration

We present an overview of songs seen and heard on episode 4 of ‘Coke Studio’s Seasons 5’.
Kandyaari Dhol Geet

Bohemia and Chakwal Group: This is a love song written by Aziz Lohar, a contemporary of the Chakwalis who hailed from village Shah Khushi near Kalar Kahar in Chakwal. There is little information available as to the date it was written and no written records of the poet Aziz Lohar. A fusion between contrasting tragedies of love; One referring to spiritual love, sung by the Chakwali’s in a joyful manner and the other relating to people who are lost in the material realm, performed by Bohemia.
Tora Bahraam Khaana

Hamayoon Khan: This is a famous Pashto folk song which was tied together with another folk song with a similar theme. ‘Tora Bahraam Khaana’ is a love song sung from a woman to her beloved. Her beloved, Bahram Khan, has a very dark complexion – and not considered handsome by conventional ideals of beauty, however, that is of very little significance to the girl and she sings about how much she cares and loves Bahram Khan. This song was tied together with another folk song in which a man is singing to his beloved who is very dark but he doesn’t care and will continue to love her. Like Larsha Pekhawar Ta, Tora Baram Khanna includes Pashto couplets known as tappas.
Dholna

Atif Aslam: This song was supposed to be on one of Aslam’s albums but he wanted to do it for Coke Studio. The song talks about Aslam’s journey. He writes about the idea of searching for someone and turning to God in pain of separation from his beloved. In the song Atif writes that the beloved returns but the person doesn’t need them anymore because he has found God and needs nothing else. Aslam decided to include a section from ‘Shaana Uchiyan’ the renowned qawali performed by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He felt the qawali would help bring out the idea of searching for God and add a higher spiritual dimension to his music. A track created upon cyclic rhythm layers, which evolve through shifting accents while the underlying rhythm remains unchanged.
Bolay

Uzair Jaswal: was written in late 2011 and is very different from Jaswal’s other songs. Most of his compositions are sad and mellow and Jaswal wanted to do something that would appeal to people his own age. ‘Bolay’ just came to him in a burst of creativity. He was asked to send a few demos for Coke Studio and wanted to include a faster track along with his mellow ones. The song represents the freedom, love and a carefree sense of life when you’re young – one that Jaswal hopes will touch the youth at the heart. A light-hearted track that inspired Coke Studio to use a typical eastern folk-beat as its fusion rhythm base.
Rung

Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad: This is a Kalaam written by Amir Khusro in his early years. Though there is no evidence to prove this, it is said that Khusro was inspired to write the kalaam after he met his pir Nizamuddin Auliya. This version of Rung is considered to be the closest to the original rendition by Amir Khusro. It has been featured this season along with Hadiqa Kiyani’s version to show the similarity and contrast between two very different versions of the same Qawali. One reason why traditional music continues to survive today is because of its evolution in time. By featuring two different versions of Rung in one season, this point is highlighted and experimentation with traditional music is encouraged – provided the essence of the original is not sacrificed.