Sheherazaad announces details for her new LP Qasr, set for release on March 1.

Today, migration seems to be encoded into everyday habits. As so many of our minds and bodies aggressively globalise in unprecedented ways, previously fixed “genres” and identities of any kind are constantly being dismantled, made redundant, and born anew.

It’s from this space of flux that American composer and vocalist Sheherazaad derives song. Produced by Arooj Aftab, her forthcoming mini-album, Qasr, was engendered during a time of family estrangement, grief over a lost elder, and the racial polarisation of her country as she knew it.

Translating to “castle” or “fortress” in Urdu, Qasr is indeed a monument — like encapsulation of the real strains of displacement, the push and pull of diaspora, and the depravity of erasure and forgotten roots. These experiences and their inherent violence, hysteria, and romance imbue her sonic deep-dive into the world of the so-called in-between.

On new track Dhund Lo Mujhe (“Search For Me”), pizzicato fiddles cut through, almost unnervingly jaunty alongside her tumultuous delivery. “For me, it brings up this circus of the insane, carnival of the unhappy,” she explains. “It suggests a very specific insanity, that of the immigrant experience. There is implied bloodshed, glamour, hallucination, and schizophrenia.”

· listen to Dhund Lo Mujhe
· pre-order the album on LP · DL
· book tickets to her upcoming shows with Hatis Noit