PURE ECSTASY

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

IF A FOREIGN FILM IS CAPTIVATING--say the Chinese drama Raise the Red Lantern--within a few minutes the subtitles melt away. One forgets that the characters are speaking a different language, and the message of the film, its plot, its humor, come through. So too with music. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is a huge star in his native Pakistan; but although he speaks no English, and his songs are often in Urdu, he has built a following of hipster fans in the U.S. Khan is a singer of qawwali--Sufi Muslim religious music, which, like gospel, seeks to bring listeners closer to God through ecstatic vocals and rhythms. Some American rock stars, perhaps seeking to fill a spiritual void in their own music, have gravitated to Khan. Eddie Vedder, leader of the prickly rock band Pearl Jam, sings two elegiac duets with him on the sound track of the film Dead Man Walking.

Khan's elegant new album Night Song (Real World/Caroline) takes the singer in a more worldly direction. Collaborating with Canadian producer-guitarist Michael Brook, Khan ventures into songs about earthly rather than religious love. On the song My Heart, My Life, he also experiments with phrasing that is more direct than the ethereal style of his qawwali work. On Crest, he reels off spiraling vocals over a beat that is almost funky. Says Khan: "I am trying to give my voice greater range." Purists may not like the fact that he's recorded such brazenly entertaining secular songs. No matter. Get out your popcorn. The subtitles have melted away.

--C.J.F. Reported by Ratu Kamlani/New York

With reporting by Ratu Kamlani/New York