Fanna-Fi-Allah, Tahir Qawwal - Live in London 2023 (2023)

Live in London 2023 documents a full-length performance by Fanna-Fi-Allah together with Tahir Qawwal, recorded live at Union Chapel, London, and released on October 11, 2023 via Tabaruq Records. The album forms part of a trio of recordings made in the wake of the ensemble's sweeping 2023 world tour, which took them across the Baltics, America, Europe, the Middle East, and Britain.
The five extended pieces — ranging from fourteen to twenty-one minutes each — represent the canonical core of the Sufi qawwali repertoire. Noor-E-Azal opens with a meditation on eternal divine light; Man Kunto Maula, tracing back to Amir Khusro, celebrates Hazrat Ali; To Se Lagi Lagan and Akhian Udeek Diyan render the Punjabi poetry of spiritual longing; and Shahbaz Qalandar closes the program with the ecstatic invocation of the Sindhi Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.
Fanna-Fi-Allah maintain the strictest fidelity to classical qawwali form — no electronics, no fusion, no pop crossover. The ensemble performs with two harmoniums, Pakistani tablas, hand-clapping, and tamboura, delivering the mystical verse of Sufi poets in Urdu, Farsi, Hindi, and Punjabi. The Gothic Revival architecture of Union Chapel, a Grade I-listed venue in Islington, lends the recording an acoustic gravity well-suited to the devotional intensity of the music.



Tracklist:
1-1 Fanna-Fi-Allah;Tahir Qawwal - Noor-E-Azal (Live) [feat. Tahir Qawwal] [20:30]
1-2 Fanna-Fi-Allah;Tahir Qawwal - Man Kunto Maula (Live) [feat. Tahir Qawwal] [21:16]
1-3 Fanna-Fi-Allah;Tahir Qawwal - To Se Lagi Lagan (Live) [feat. Tahir Qawwal] [15:44]
1-4 Fanna-Fi-Allah;Tahir Qawwal - Akhian Udeek Diyan (Live) [feat. Tahir Qawwal] [14:41]
1-5 Fanna-Fi-Allah;Tahir Qawwal - Shahbaz Qalandar (Live) [feat. Tahir Qawwal] [16:40]