MUMBAI: Iranian-American vocalist Katayoun Goudarzi and Grammy-nominated classical Indian legend-composer and sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan collaborate to give a new urgency to the age-old love poems of Rumi on their latest album “This Pale”.

Shujaat Husain Khan and Katayoun Goudarzi have worked on several projects in the past and their recordings have always begun with simple ideas that go back to their love and affection for poetry. “This album was no exception. We were talking about a ghazal, the one later performed in ‘All I've Got’ which is the last song in the album and really connected to it and that was the starting point”.

The album consists of 6 songs that were inspired by 7 different ghazals. In each and every track, they all try to transcribe the shifting flow of emotions through their instruments and vocals, hoping their listeners will experience different spectrums of feelings from joy to sadness, to love and grief.

We are all going through some tough times with the pandemic and it's important to find ways to keep our mind focused “music and poetry does just that”, says Katayoun.