ISHAAQ AARKISTRA

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“Love this!”
– Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music

“A bright future” ★★★★
– Dagens Nyheter (Sweden)

Ishaaq Aarkistra is a Stockholm-based ensemble led by Swedish-Indian musician Ishaaq (Isak Klasson), creating expansive, improvisation-led music that finds common ground between Indian raga and Western jazz, psychedelia and hip-hop-inflected rhythm. Their acclaimed new album Arikomban Space was recorded live at ABBA’s legendary RMV Studio in Stockholm and produced by Jari Haapalainen, resulting in a richly textured, borderless sound shaped by collective performance and deep listening. The record received widespread praise, including BBC 6 Music airplay from Deb Grant and Lauren Laverne, an extended feature on Worldwide FM, and a ★★★★ review from Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter, which described the project as “wonderful” and predicted a bright future.

Ishaaq’s music draws directly from his dual Indian-Swedish heritage. Raised in Sweden and holding dual citizenship, he first emerged in the early 2000s as the singer and songwriter in Speedmarket Avenue, releasing music on cult Spanish label Elefant Records, before moving toward a more spiritual, raga-influenced solo practice. Under the Ishaaq Aarkistra banner — a Swedish twist on the Urdu word for “orchestra” — he assembled a hand-picked group of jazz and Indian-trained musicians to improvise freely on tabla, bansuri flute, synths, pedal steel and drums, later sculpting those sessions into immersive compositions full of pulsing grooves, psychedelic shimmer and communal energy. Arikomban Space marks a creative turning point: music made collectively, instinctively, and without borders — a joyful celebration of collaboration, culture and shared space.

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