His new album, in collaboration with drummer and composer Gregory Rogrove, will be released on May 22
Ali Sethi is expected to release his upcoming album, Room Jhoom, very soon, taking inspiration from his hit song Pasoori, with Shae Gill.
Sethi is a famous Pakistani singer, songwriter, and composer, known for blending Eastern and Western music together. His most famous phenomenon, Pasoori, was 2022’s most searched song on Google and had over a billion views on YouTube.
Sethi also performed at Carnegie Hall and other international music festivals after gaining initial popularity on Coke Studio Pakistan.
His new album, Room Jhoom, expected to be released on May 22, will be a collaboration between Sethi and American drummer and music composer Gregory Rogrove, taking on a fusion of styles from soft Sufi to fast-paced Caribbean music.
Sethi shared an Instagram post explaining the process behind the album.
“But then something happened. I began to loosen, to journey away from my moorings. I was succumbing to new sounds and sensations, yes, but also surrendering to a long-buried voice within, which asked me to seek freedom, to lay roots in new soil, to pin my hopes on an expansive horizon. In our culture broadly — and in our musical tradition specifically — exiting the agreed-upon framework is a feint most foul. thou shalt not switch sides, and thou certainly shalt not advertise it on Instagram. Besharam behaya!”, he said.
The singer regretted how social norms and taboo music choices were disrespected in his home country and he did not want to shy away from changing that. This time, that meant bridging a gap between South Asian and Latin American pop.
At the end, Sethi highlighted, “what we made is music rooted in trust: trust in the process of collaboration, and in the power of intuition. I’m so grateful I got to bend the rules of my raags with @gregoryrogove and @jay_is and @mrjordankatz (and many others), and I can’t wait to share more from this project with you”.
The album is Sethi’s second, following Love Language, released in August last year. He was born to journalists and politicians Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin.
