For this fifth part in their Hidden Musics series, Glitterbeat Records this time travelled to Karachi, where they met up with seventy-five year old musician Ustad Saami. Saami is widely regarded as the very last master of the khayal (Arabic for "imagination"), a pre-Islamic predecessor of Pakistani qawwali music. Because his music is pre-Islamic in origin, in strict Islamic Pakistan his work is often considered haram or impure by many extremists, yet the master hopes to pass on his legacy. Saami, whose name can be translated as "hearing", claims that singing is mainly about listening. When singing he constantly uses his hands almost as if playing his vocal cords like a Theremin. Saami succeeds in creating a spectrum of no less than 49 different notes; a serious difference with the seven we have to make do with in the West! The entire album was recorded in one single night session during which the musicians present continuously chewed paan (a preparation combining betel leaves with areca or betel nuts found in South Asia, South-East Asia and Taiwan and chewed for its stimulating and psychoactive effects) until their teeth turned a fiery red. The session yielded 5 tracks, always featuring the harmonium or pump organ (an instrument introduced in Asia by Christian missionaries and banned on the Indian and later Pakistani radio for the longest time) in the leading role, with as an absolute highlight the almost twenty-minute long closing track 'Longing'. Mesmerizing homage to a disappearing musical tradition!