The Orchestral Qawwali Project interview: "My parents were very open-minded about spirituality"

The Orchestral Qawwali Project – voiced by Abi Sampa, produced by Rushil Ranjan and lifted by the rhythms of Amrit Dhuffer’s tabla – perform a unique brand of qawwali music, juxtaposing Western orchestral harmonies with ancient melodies. But as I find out while speaking to Sampa and Ranjan, their individual paths to the music go a long way to explain their singular approach.

British Tamil singer Sampa, who was born in London to parents with roots in the north of Sri Lanka, first discovered her deep connection to Sufi music after meeting Dhuffer. “Growing up in London, I met and mingled with people from different cultures and religions. My parents were very open-minded about spirituality and I studied Western classical piano and saxophone and the South Indian Saraswati veena, and went to Satsang, a multi-faith spiritual education centre. It was a huge journey musically and, in my early 20s, Amrit my tabla player introduced me to qawwali music, which I instantly fell in love with. For the last 15 years, I’ve been singing some version of it. Five years ago, I met Rushil who was also a huge qawwali fan and we started creating the music we do now.”

“I was born in Mumbai, India to a father from the Punjab and a mother from Goa,” Ranjan explains. “We moved to London when I was one and then Cyprus when I was two, which is where I was raised. Our household didn’t celebrate South Asian culture, and the music I grew up on was Western, Cypriot and Greek music. Aged 15 I was signed to a label there as a singer and songwriter, but the sound I discovered with Indian classical music in Oxford thrilled me. They had harnessed technical mastery for the purposes of emotional advocation.” This gave him the idea to found The Fusion Project, where students mixed Western technique with the emotions of Indian music traditions. This caught the ear of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, nephew of Nusrat, who eventually employed Ranjan into his UK team. “[It] was eye opening.”

Ranjan explains that Dhuffer is the authentic beating heart of The Orchestral Qawwali Project. Ranjan smiles and says, “he lives and breathes qawwali. He met Nusrat and sat on his lap – there’s even a lovely photo. He keeps us true to the art form.” 

Sampa echoes the sentiment: “He’s not just a tabla player. He’s a singer and a student of Ustad Dildar Hussain Khan, who was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s tabla player, and was trained by Ustad Alla Rakha. Amrit has helped me understand the lyrics of many qawwali pieces, and also the traditions, plus helping us arrange the songs lyrically.”

On a mission of uplifting ancient poetry, including some well-known names like Baba Bulleh Shah and Amir Khusrau, The Orchestral Qawwali Project applied for funding from Arts Council and PRS for Music in order to release a debut album, which they received just before the pandemic. The album, Belonging, sets idiomatic Punjabi poetry to popular qawwali music to spellbinding effect, with Sampa supported by a crew of male qawwali singers. 

In an attempt to reconnect with the music that they fell in love with, they will be using a retro recording technique for the album, which Ranjan is clearly excited about. “We’re going to go into the studio and set up with the orchestra, and just like Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan used to do it back in the day, we will record it straight through.”   

This interview originally appeared in the August/September 2022 issue of Songlines magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today