Since her 2015 debut Bird Under Water, Pakistani American singer Arooj Aftab has honed the delicate cadence of her voice in increasingly minimal settings. On that album, she embellished yearning Urdu poetry with traditional instrumentation such as the sitar and bansuri, along with drums and cajon; 2018’s follow-up Siren Islands experimented with a layered synth backing. Her breakthrough album, 2021’s Grammy-winning Vulture Prince, reduced the percussion further, instead opting for the ornamentation of violin, harp and double bass.
