By Dar Yasin and Aijaz Hussain
Srinagar, India (AP) – Farooq Ahmad Shaksaaz presses a button on his sharp cassette player from 1970 and the machine to live with a high click. While the Kashmir tailoring institutions divide, the machine fills his shop with verses over divine love and the pain of separation from the beloved creator of the universe for a moment before Ghulam Ahmad Sofis.
Shaksaaz, a tailor in town of Kaschmiri Srinagar, inherited his passion for the local Sufi music from his grandfather along with a meticulously preserved collection of audio cassettes from the Seventies, which he often heard during work.
He is an element of a small, committed community that believes Indian controlled cashmereWhere music is inspired by local and central Asian Muslim saints, a deep expression of spirituality and emotions has long been a deep expression of spirituality and emotions. Many people turn to the music for spiritual leadership or are in search of an escape from the long periods of the region of Street battles, shutdowns and safety clamp.
For a long time, cassettes have had the soul-written poems of Sufi-Saints and the paranormal melodies of cashmere instruments comparable to Sarangi and Santoor, and it has long been a neighborhood ritual for families to assemble a band player's warm sum. Even today, the standard Sufi music meetings within the region are sometimes only included within the disappeared audio format, which was widespread from the Seventies to Nineteen Nineties.
While the music is increasingly available in digital formats, many Kashmiris say that it’s best heard on cassettes.
“This machine has something unique that plays spiritual leaders for me,” said Abdul Ahad, a carpet weaver. “It is a sacred ritual to press the Play button of a cassette player to hear a song on spiritual mooring.”
Many of the most well-liked albums were published by local record labels in the course of the flowering period of the audio cassette, but committed fans of the genre still bring adhesive tape writers. Digital recorder are sometimes undesirable in these nightly music sessions, as Sufi music lovers say that they mix the various sounds of the various instruments.
“It is a different experience to listen to music on a bandwriter,” said Abdul Hamid Khan. “Bands are smooth and you can feel the sound of any instrument, you don't get this feeling with these new players.”
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Since the ligaments break down and alter more music to digital streaming platforms and smartphones, the tactile and deeply personal listening experience of cassettes is becoming increasingly difficult to proceed.
Many families were forced to separate themselves from their players on account of mechanical failures, while other difficulties should preserve their esteemed casset collections, a few of that are resumed and irreplaceable, that are passed on over generations. Some collectors have contacted the digitization of their old shots to guard them for future generations.
Only just a few shops in Srinagar, the capital of the region, sold adhesive tapes or empty ligaments and the provision of spare parts and qualified repair technicians have decreased drastically.
A handful of mechanics within the Kashmir -Valley are still aimed toward a committed population of Sufi music lovers, who rigorously restored within the last century by beloved Japanese brands comparable to Sharp and Kenwood.
Mohammad Ashraf Matoo, an autodidactic mechanic, has spent a long time of cassette players for a long time by becoming increasingly scarce. He doesn’t buy functional recorder to extract usable components and manufactures some parts himself to maintain the devices of its customers running. Depending on the brand and condition, a well-functioning cassette recorder is sold at a price between $ 150 and $ 850.
Shaksaaz, a lifelong Sufi Music Devotee, called it a “personal mission” to preserve the legacy of the cassette bands.
“It is a bridge to the past, a way to remain connected to our spiritual and cultural roots in this ever -modern and digital world,” he said.
Originally published:
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