On the opening week of Brighton Festival 2025, The Dome hosted Arooj Aftab and Wooly Aziz for an evening of experimental grace and emotional connection.

The artists joined the Festival's bold and eclectic programme of events curated by this year's Guest Director, renowned sitarist, composer and activist, Anoushka Shankar. With the theme of 'New Dawn', Anoushka's vision was clear:

"For years now there have been many reasons to worry, to lose hope. But we have the power within us to create an alternate future. That's what Brighton Festival 2025 is about – let's come together to reflect, lift each other up and take action. This is a festival for everyone to participate in, to connect with, to feel part of. I can't wait."

Wooly Aziz

Genre-fluid and emotionally evocative, the Berlin-based, Lahore-born artist shared music that transcended easy categorisation. We've landed on left-field experimental balladry with a fresh, soulful electronic pulse.

The keys player entered the stage bathed in a purple haze, caped and shaded in all black. Their droning synths and drum machine strikes created an atmospheric introduction to 'Somedays'. Wooly Aziz floated on stage cloaked in a crisp white satin suit. Luminescent and standing parallel to the audience, they performed with fluid, mesmerising arm movements that mirrored their beautiful floating vocals. Their strong poise reflected in the distorted sounds coming from their stage partner.

As the stage lighting warmed to orange, Wooly turned to face the audience, their buttery vocals warped with textured effects to create something intriguing and magnetic. Divine accompaniment cushioned the enchanting, tender performance.

Keys subsided to create space for Wooly's vocals on 'Bluelight Moonlight', the title track off their upcoming conceptual record exploring love, war and migration. They used the motif of colour as a sort of language, as moonlight, sunlight, warm hues and cool shadows carried us into Wooly's journey of identity and devotion.

Songs merged and swelled into a tide of beauty and devastation, with the closing song 'Fuck Rush' using a thumping backing track to dive into electric melancholia. At the end of the set, Wooly Aziz thanked the audience and their hosts. The crowd erupted from their trance in cheers and applause. A stunning set that blurred the lines of tender poetry, experimental electronica and artistic storytelling.

Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab emerged a total rockstar wearing black platforms, black sunglasses and a black leather jacket complete with devil-horn shoulder pads. After opening the set with the beautiful uplifting folk explosion 'Suroor', Arooj drew cackles from the audience as she welcomed us to an "unserious concert" despite appearances and the snug seating arrangement. 

Her image and chatter were brilliantly disarming, especially in contrast to the sincerity and gravity of her music. The artist was pretty damn remarkable in her non-conformity and genre-bending sound of jazz, minimalist pop and South Asian classical and folk styles. Performing with a full band featuring accordion, double bass, guitar and drums, each musician had space to shine with virtuosic improvised solos glittered throughout the set - the singer applauding her peers after each with love and admiration.

Arooj's impossibly smooth, velvet vocals were mostly delivered in Urdu and transcended language. Her music ushered non-Urdu-speaking listeners to connect to the feeling and emotion of the music, rather than the given meaning of lyrics. Live, this allowed for real freedom and many moments of rapture.

The set featured songs from across her albums, including those of sorrow from Vulture Prince (2022) and those that brought some light to the shade from Night Reign (2024). 'Whiskey', a fan-favourite from her most recent album, arrived with trays full of whiskey for the crowd. The song is a loving ode to drinking a little too much with a loved one and was delivered with a new arrangement that ran wild with spinning momentum.

After a standing ovation for a closing rock rendition of 'Bo Nala', Arooj and her incredible band returned to the stage to play a song from her first album that "no one cared about" followed by the song that everyone cares about, the Grammy-winning masterpiece, 'Mohabbat'.

With their sharp suits, ethereal vocals and cosmic poise, Wooly and Arooj transported us to their otherworldly planets where we were very happy to remain.