“"Far from a typical album, Mannat is Shumaila Hemani’s extraordinary, contemplative debut...her own lyrics are arranged to create audible sculptures evoking powerful imagery and stirring potent emotions."” - Jenny Feniak

— Edmonton Journal

“Shumaila Hemani’s Powerful Track “Displacement” Evokes a Spirit of Perseverance in the Face of Devastating and Uncertainty in the Wake of the Floods in Pakistan.” - Simian Thinker

— Queen City Sounds and Arts

Perils of Heavy Rainfall, an acousmatic composition on floods in Pakistan in 2020, was awarded Second Prize in the Listening During COVID contest (2020) by the Canadian Association of Sound Ecology (CASE) and accepted for publication in the Goose, Journal of Environment, Arts, & Culture, Canada (Fall, 2022). 

“Blending languages to convey a universal sentiment of helplessness and waiting, Shumaila Hemani's original song, Anticipating bears a visceral emotionality and a deep musicality - expertly ushering listeners into a place of contemplation and consideration. Vocally, this performance bears an impressive amount of emotional vulnerability - something that listeners will respond to, especially in conjunction with these thought-provoking lyrics.” - John Wright

— Radio Airplay

Perils of Heavy Rainfall Receives Second Prize at Listening During Covid Contest (2020) by Canadian Society for Sound Ecology (CASE)

Accepted for publication in the Goose, Journal of Environment, Arts, and Culture in Canada

 

Monsoon is typically a season to rejoice in South Asia because it cools off July's hot summer weather. In the poetry of Sufi mystic, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Monsoon is a time of abundance, and his verses are prayers of abundance for Sindh and the entire world. In the past few years, however, climate change has led to heavy floods and massive displacement of poor people in Sindh. This year, floods even reached Karachi's urban city, the biggest metropolis of Pakistan, causing the displacement of 500,000 families and more than 1.2 million people. Amidst the outbreak of COVID-19, the displaced families face an even greater risk of being affected by the region's spreading virus. The soundscape composition, "Pitfalls of Heavy Rainfall," is based on field-recordings collected from July to September 2020 in Karachi, my hometown. 

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Forgotten Ways of Thinking

Also featured in Ear to Earth (2019) & R.L. Stevenson Prize Concert (2012)

Shumaila Hemani guides listeners through the Shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai in Pakistan to convey sonic expressions of Islamic beliefs as she experiences them.  Built on the idea of “sonic photographs,” Hemani’s Forgotten Ways of Thinking, a pioneering soundscape piece from Pakistan, communicates the sonic expressions of Islamic beliefs and reflections on her subjectivity as a female ethnographer observing women’s possessed voices at the margins of a male-centered Sufi performance. Hemani created the piece on a 2009 trip to Bhitshah, Pakistan to research the tradition of the Shah jo Raag, the sung poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, that became the focus of her 2019 dissertation at the University of Alberta.

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