A R Rahman launch album for Sikh holy scripture

NEW DELHI: Music Maestro and Oscar award winner A R Rahman on Friday revealed the spiritual side in him when he unveiled a new independent music label with the launch of the album ‘ik on ‘kar’, featuring a sacred composition found in Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Holy scripture. On the occasion of ‘Baisakhi’ festival, Rahman, who won accolades and awards for his soulful and spiritual music of Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Rockstar’, unveiled the independent music label ‘Asli Music’. The label, helmed by National award winning sound engineer and music composer Kanwarjit Singh Sawhney, was launched with the release of a spirtual album ‘ik on kar’, featuring the complete Japji Sahib, the fi rst sacred composition found in Guru Granth Sahib. The album, which features the sacred composition in the voice of upcoming sufi playback singer Harshdeep Kaur, was launched in the presence of artists like acclaimed contemporary Indian artist Arpana Caur, famous compere Shammi Narang as well as independent musicians Rabbi Shergill, Gautam Ghosh. Shubha Mudgal, Jassi, Indian Ocean and Parikrama. Speaking on the occasion, Rahman said for any music to touch hearts of people it was very important that it come from the heart. Speaking about the new label, its chief K J Singh said Asli Music endeavoured to bring a distinctive and fresh perspective to music by discovering, developing and promoting new talent which is original and novel. “We aspire to be a full 360 Degree music label soon which will offer holistic solutions to artists, from training them to supporting them through their launch as professional artists by developing, publishing and promotion and distribution. “We will also have services to allow producers easy licensing to our content for their movies and TV programmes,’ Singh said. Asli Music has signed an exlusive licence with Times Music Spiritual, for manufacturing and distributing the physical album worldwide and digital distribution in India for three years. It has also digitised the album for allowing downloading of content, both online as well as on mobile handsets. Through its global partnership with Rebeat digital, Asli Music will also distribute its digital content to over 300 online music stores and partners worldwide, including iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Napster, E Music and Nokia Ovi stores, among others.