YEDM first covered world music/EDM fusionist Mohamed Assani when his epic Wayfinder album dropped in 2020 and the award-winning sitar player has made a number of singles since then, but his new video for “Lullaby for Guli” off of Wayfinder has given us cause to examine this lush and beautifully produced album yet again.
Wayfinder is one of those albums that reveals something new to the listener every time it’s played. With Assani’s rich and complex sitar alone, it feels like each track is a story that unfolds differently each time you open it and has infinite endings. Add in the accompanying instruments and electronic production and it seems like there are thousands of ways to appreciate this surprisingly short (it doesn’t feel short) work.
With its new remaster, just released this year, it seems there are even more ways now to listen to and interpret the spiritually-tinged journey that is Wayfinder, but with his new video for the album’s second track “Lullaby for Guli,” Assani has given us his original meaning: it’s a love song to his mother. 
Often a child’s first experience of music is in the form of a lullaby sung to them by their mothers. This was definitely the case for me – my mother sang me lullabies and told me wonderful stories – stories that shaped me and how I viewed the world.
It seems with “Lullaby for Guli,” Assani wanted to return the favor and make a track that encompassed all those feelings from childhood with his mother. The video, produced by Pool Service Productions, is not just a beautiful and heart-rending interpretation of the music, featuring outstanding cinematography of Assani standing on a beach and remembering the love and lullabies with his mother. It also draws forth the cinematic quality of the production in this song and allows the listener to hear it in an even deeper, more emotional and definitely more personal way.
“Lullaby for Guli” is a lovely gift to mothers and an appreciation of women and its video a journey through the life and art of a man who clearly reveres them. It’s also an emotional gift to the world for Mohamed Assani to let us see the raw emotion of this track through the video; the power of music and the power of film working together to create something even more powerful. Assani’s mother passed in 2014 but the love he has for her is clearly as as alive as ever through this song and video.
To re-experience Wayfinder’s remaster (or to listen for the first time), it can be streamed on Spotify or Bandcamp. For more epic videos of Assani’s amazing sitar playing, visit his YouTube channel.
