‘Aamad’, the debut solo album of film composer, writer and, performer Sameer Rahat, released last month with a soft whisper but it’s slowly growing into a roar. A concept album through and through, the album is a journey of melancholia through a myriad of emotions, much like the ones we experience after coming out of a deep and profound relationship. It sings and tells stories of solitude, communication, solace, fury, realisation and – eventually – egress. ‘Aamad‘ means arrival, poetically, it refers to a fleeting thought within the subconscious.
Son of celebrated Indian poet Rahat Indori sahab, Sameer Rahat has been a film music composer, performer and a writer in Mumbai. Lending his creative support to many popular projects, this album marks Sameer’s serious foray into the music circuit as an independent artist. He also plays his own brand of Urdu-blues music, experimenting with the poetry of contemporary and progressive Urdu poets from the Indian subcontinent.
All songs on the album have been sung, composed, arranged, produced and mixed by Sameer Rahat while lead guitars, co-production and backup vocals on some of the tracks have been handled by Parvaaz’s lead guitarist Mir Kashif Iqbal. A 7 track album that glides through time like poetry in motion, ‘Aamad’ is one of the most peculiar Hindi/Urdu albums from recent times. Produced with grandeur but still retaining the intimacy of a singer-songwriter, the album combines orchestral and atmospheric sounds to cultivate a feeling of forlorn hope of falling in love again after emerging from falling out of love. While some tracks stand out as spoken word poetry, songs like ‘Hum Kaun Thae’ and ‘Khat’ are slow burning tracks that hit you right in your heart.
With his debut, Sameer Rahat hopes to cement his place as a singer-songwriter who builds worlds and tells us stories through his music, and ‘Aamad’ is the first definite step in that direction.
