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Afghan rabab master & Sikh singer and trumpet player to release debut joint album, Sangat
“Together the two musicians draw on centuries-old texts, often from the Sufi and Sikh traditions, to make music that embraces unity at a time of great division.” – John Schaefer, WNYC
Afghan American rabab virtuoso Qais Essar has joined forces with Sikh American trumpet player and singer Sonny Singh on a new album called SANGAT that obliterates musical, political, and religious boundaries. Weaving together the ancient sound and haunting melodies of the rabab, a 2,500 year-old instrument from Afghanistan, with bold trumpet lines and anthemic Punjabi and Farsi vocals, Qais and Sonny ground their music in ancestral wisdom and usher us into the future with their uplifting new sound. Drawing inspiration from hundreds of years old mystical poetry from the Sikh and Sufi traditions, their music centers oneness and connection in times of increasing division and hierarchy.
SANGAT, the duo’s debut album together, will be out on Friday, October 17th. The album is not only a meeting of diverse musical and spiritual traditions, but also a reflection of using art as a vehicle for connection, resistance, and healing.
“Sangat is a term Sikhs use to refer to beloved community,” explains Singh. “We often use the term to refer to the congregation in a gurdwara [Sikh house of worship], but to me, sangat is something much broader. My beloved community transcends ethnic, religious and national boundaries.”
Essar adds, “In this climate of increasing attacks on the marginalized, including the communities Sonny and I are a part of, we hope this new music inspires solidarity and unity.”
SANGAT is a 9-song, cross-genre odyssey that spans from contemporary renditions of Sikh and Sufi music to Indian classical to instrumental rabab and trumpet improvisations. The sound and relationship between the rabab and trumpet grounds us throughout the journey – two instruments rarely if ever heard together before.
Part of the inspiration behind this new album and collaboration is the long history of Muslim rabab players being central in Sikh devotional spaces, beginning in the early 16th Century with Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith, being accompanied on his travels with Bhai Mardana, a Muslim rababi. Essar and Singh tell this story in a mini-documentary about SANGAT, directed by award-winning filmmaker Shruti Parekh, out on August 25, 2025. Preview the 5-minute documentary here.
Produced by Qais Essar and co-produced by Sonny Singh, SANGAT includes:
VICH SANGAT, an original rendition of a 16th Century Sikh devotional poem by Guru Ram Das. With stacked vocal harmonies that call and respond with the cello, trumpet, and rabab, the track is a reminder that we can find divine oneness in the beloved community, the sangat.
KHABARAM RASEEDA IMSHAB, a neo soul contemporary composition in ⅞ inspired by Afghan folk rhythm breathes new life into the timeless ghazal by 14th Century Sufi poet Amir Khusrau. Centuries old poetry flows through modern rhythm and soul.
LAL MERI PAT, Qais and Sonny’s rendition of the iconic Sufi song praising the 12th Century mystic known as Shabaaz Qalandar. With stacked Punjabi drums and percussion and featuring Sandeep Singh’s winding melodies on dilruba, LAL MERI PAT is an ecstatic celebration of unity and pluralism.
KAJAWE WO SHAHLAILA RO RO, an instrumental Afghan folk song led by the rhythm of the dhol and call and response melodies between rabab and trumpet. The song is an Attan, a Pashtun form of music and dance associated with anti-colonial resistance to keep morale high in the struggle for freedom.
Qais Essar and Sonny Singh debuted their new collaboration on live stages in June 2025, with packed shows in the Bay Area, Washington, DC, and New York City. In the project’s first few months, it has been featured by The Hindu, WNYC, KEXP, India Currents, and SikhNet.
“Sangat…continues to pave the way for experimental music, a symphony of a cultural paradox where the rabab and trumpet, old and new, Sikh and Muslim, Afghan and Indian, Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana and Bhakti and Sufi movements — everything is connected to the sacred chord of humanism.” – Amarjot Kaur, The Hindu
About Qais Essar and Sonny Singh
Deemed “a master of the rabab” by NY Daily News, Qais Essar is an award-winning rabab virtuoso, composer, and producer whose groundbreaking work has elevated the Afghan rabab to unprecedented global prominence. Hailed for his genre-defying mastery, Essar has toured extensively, sharing his new genre of music nationally and internationally in venues like the Newport Folk Festival, SXSW, The Kennedy Center, and the Sydney Opera House. Hyphen says he “pushes the traditional rabab into uncharted territory.” In June 2023, Qais was a featured artist with the Oxford Philharmonic, performing new works of music by Afghan composers. has contributed original music to feature film and television, composing for two Oscar-nominated films. Essar has released over a dozen albums and EPs, which have been featured by BBC, Noisey, NPR, Songlines, SBS Australia, Rolling Stone India, and more. Essar is not only preserving a cultural legacy but transforming it into a living, evolving art form for a global audience.
JazzTimes calls Sonny Singh’s music, “vibrant, ebullient, and energized…a prayer for our ailing world.” Launched in 2020, his solo project centers on the Sikh concept of chardi kala – revolutionary eternal optimism – also the name of his debut 2022 album, which received accolades from NPR Music, Songlines, Bandcamp Daily, Rolling Stone India, Grammy.com, KEXP, and more. Sonny has performed his music at the Brooklyn Museum, Lincoln Center, Lotus World Music Festival, and the White House. His latest album Sage Warrior was released in September 2024 alongside a book by the same name by Valarie Kaur, after which Qais, Sonny, and Valarie went on a 40+ city tour around the United States together sharing ancestral music and stories of revolutionary love. Sonny is an original member of the celebrated bhangra brass band Red Baraat and a longtime social justice educator and activist.