Kashmiri folk songs by Chicago based band Lamajamal (arabic word for ‘beauty’) [Youtube]. The album ‘Saazuk Safar’ (2012) was commissioned by funkar.org. It’s like debut of Kashmiri music on modern world music scene. Listen to traditional sound in a new way…I particularly liked the tracks ‘Rum Gayam Sheeshus‘ (sung by Asal Monfared) and instrumental ‘Hay Vayas‘
Original version of ‘Rum ghyam sheeshas byegur gav bane myon‘ by Raaj Begum and Naseem Akhtar at Funkaar
Note: Repercussion of Kashmiri habit of not having any formal credit system for artistic works and too much dependence on oral culture, as no one introduces the poet before reciting his/her work: Four decades ago, the name of the poet who composed it and the song was on lips of every Kashmiri. Now, it took me hours to find the name of the poet who composed this ghazal. I finally found it in a book by S.L. Sadhu on Kashmiri literature published in 1974. The poet is Mirza Ghulam Hassan Beg Aarif.
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I hereby recommend Vinayak Razdan's name for Nishaan-e-Kashmir.
Why? Why? Why? Why is it that the only way we define "progress" in our music as adding or fusing it with western or arabic or japanese or some other music? Why are we so insecure about our culture that we have to fuse it with someone eles'. Why don't we create new Kashmiri compositions like Bhajan Sopori and other stalwarts like him created? They were original works born out of the genius of musicians who truly knew and understood music.
Because there is no pure real original art. All art borrows and derives from one or another stream. It is all fusion. Bhajan Sopori in his time was also doing fusion…you would know if you have heard enough.