Sheherazaad

The composer and vocalist Sheherazaad grew up in what she describes as a “fanatically art-centered South Asian American household.” Deeply shaped by Indian classical music from an early age, she transforms the search for her roots into a mesmerizing and radically new sonic world - music that seems almost unearthly.

With her EP Qasr (Erased Tapes, 2024), Sheherazaad presents a haunting work about origin, alienation, and self-empowerment. Produced by Grammy Award–winner Arooj Aftab, Qasr unfolds South Asian vocal improvisation through microtonal melancholy and experimental minimalism. In it, Sheherazaad explores what it means to live between cultures - not as a rupture, but as a continual movement. Her voice serves simultaneously as instrument, anchor, and departure point.

Qasr (Urdu for “fortress”) was created during a time of familial distance and social polarization. And indeed, Qasr stands as a monument: it embodies the weight of displacement, the conflicting forces of longing and belonging in the diaspora and the danger of erasure, of forgetting one’s roots. “It was maddening that the music of my origins didn’t yet exist. So I knew I would have to make it,” says Sheherazaad. With Qasr, she builds her fortress, while encouraging her listeners to construct their own impossible dream worlds.

Sheherazaad - vocals
Alan Keary (Shunya) - bass, violin
Jay Chakravorty - baritone ukelele, piano, synths
Pharoah Russell - drums

www.sheherazaad.com