Jaubi

Jaubi, an experimental quartet from Lahore, Pakistan whose name derives from an Urdu term signifying "whatever," blends Hindustani classical traditions with hip-hop, funk, neo-soul, and spiritual jazz. Following aural conventions of the Hindustani classical lineage, the group composes entirely by ear without committing material to notation. Their first release paid tribute to J Dilla on the tenth anniversary of his passing through a cover of "Time: The Donut of the Heart," after which they issued the EP The Deconstructed Ego later that same year. Astigmatic put out their debut album Nafs at Peace in 2021.

The ensemble came together in 2013 when Zohaib Hassan Khan on sarangi joined Kashif Ali Dhani on tabla, Qamar Abbas on cajon, and Ali Riaz Baqar on guitar. An eighth-generation sarangi player, Khan shares deep familial musical roots with Abbas and Dhani, whereas Baqar, the primary composer, developed his guitar skills independently. The Urdu meaning of the band's name reflects their guiding principle of creating and performing whatever feels and sounds right, an approach to merging Indian music with outside idioms that echoes earlier efforts by Pandit Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Baqar first encountered J Dilla's work through the commentaries and playing of Robert Glasper and D'Angelo, prompting the debut single. Later that year the group delivered the ten-track EP The Deconstructed Ego on Astigmatic, which included the additional Dilla homage "Dilla Taal," before releasing the single "Lahore State of Mind" in 2018.

English producer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Tenderlonious, also known as Ed Cawthorne, and Polish pianist and composer Marek "Latarnik" Pędziwiatr of EABS traveled to Lahore in April 2019 to record with the quartet after championing The Deconstructed Ego; the two parties met again in Oslo, Norway, that August. These encounters produced several projects, among them the three-track Tender in Lahore EP issued under Tenderlonious's name in June 2020 and the full-length Ragas from Lahore: Improvisations with Jaubi that November.

Jaubi drew on the same 2019 Lahore recordings for their own 2021 output: a March cover of Madvillan's "Figaro" subtitled "Farewell MF Doom," an April remix of "Satanic Nafs" by Gaslamp Killer and Mophono, and the May album Nafs at Peace on Astigmatic.