The Southasia Ensemble set to take the stage at Weekender Festival 2017

Salt Arts, a music, art and entertainment agency based in Karachi that specializes in the creative production of events and artist management is on a roll it seems.

Having announced the upcoming Karachi tour of Lahore-based singer-songwriter Jimmy Khan that is scheduled to take place next month, Salt Arts is also all set to present The Southasia Ensemble, feat. Hamza Akram Qawwal and Brothers and Ahsan Bari Music, at the upcoming Weekender Festival 2017 in Birmingham, United Kingdom, also in September.

In a press statement, while revealing what the UK tour entails, Salt Arts noted, “As part of this creative residency the artists will be working closely with the Qawwali research unit and will be making music at the BEAST (Birmingham Electro-acoustic Sound Theatre). The ensemble will be performing their own music along with their learnings at BEAST at the Midland Centre for the Arts as part of the festival.”

Furthermore, while explaining the origin story of The Southasia Ensemble, Salt Arts stated that the idea for an evolving ensemble was born on a rainy afternoon in 2016 with the mission to celebrate both Southasian sounds and our ‘collective memory of music’.

“The ensemble is co-curated by Ahsan Bari and Salt Arts and the first show was held in August 2016, titled ‘One love Southasia’. Since the ensemble has performed a number of times as part of our Salt Soiree series in Karachi, and has featured diverse artists such as Omran Shafique, Rahat Ali and Waqas Husain.”

Apart from the Salt Arts presentation, done in collaboration with the British Council, Weekender 2017 will also feature artists from other spaces in Asia including Bangladesh’s Dhaka Electronica Scene.

– Image courtesy: Salt Arts