Sheherazaad: Urdu Folk-Noir for the 'Selfish Woman'

What does a "selfish woman" sound like? If you're Sheherazaad, it sounds like a Urdu lyric unfurling over dark, cinematic folk, ancient instruments meeting modern songcraft, and a voice that moves between the stage and the ritual fire.

Sheherazaad is an American composer and theatre artist whose debut full-length album, Khudgarzi, arrives November 20 via the esteemed London label Erased Tapes (Nils Frahm, Penguin Cafe). The album was announced on September 1 and is entirely self-produced, which is remarkable for a record this ambitious. It follows her 2024 EP Qasr, produced by Arooj Aftab and praised around the world, and it feels like an artist arriving at full power.

Khudgarzi translates from Urdu as "selfishness," and the record is a forensic deep dive into the figure of the Khudgarz Aurat, the "Selfish Woman," a label Sheherazaad heard throughout her childhood, leveled at women whose desire for agency was met with suspicion or exile. Written in the aftermath of a broken engagement, the album's ten theatrical pieces refuse neat resolutions. Instead, Sheherazaad builds an oral archive of feminine survival: characters who shapeshift between storytellers, courtesans, historians, survivors and witnesses.

The sound is dystopic folk-noir laced with experimental pop and deep South Asian sensibility. The album is mostly sung in Urdu, with passages in English and Tamil, and was recorded between Brooklyn, London and the San Francisco Bay Area, with fragments captured in Istanbul, Islamabad and Trivandrum. Traditional instruments from Hindustani, Turkish, Arab and Carnatic traditions collide with atmospheric field recordings and modern song structures. Roughly thirty guest musicians appear across the record.

Her live presence is part of the story. The announcement single "Andhera" (Darkness) came with an intimate a cappella performance video captured by renowned filmmaker Vincent Moon in London's Victoria Park, and the album's campaign is built around her commanding performances. She plays Wonderfruit Festival in Pattaya, Thailand December 3-7, then heads to the UK and Europe in January and February 2027, including Liverpool Royal Philharmonic (Jan 20), London's Cafe Oto (Jan 27) and Berlin's Supermolly (Feb 6).

What they sound like

For fans of: Arooj Aftab's nocturnal stillness, Ganavya's boundary-dissolving South Asian vocalism, Alabaster DePlume's theatrical, spoken-soul warmth. Take Aftab's quiet drama, widen it into folk-noir cinema, and thread it through with Urdu poetry.

Start here

• "Andhera" (September 2026). The lead single and announcement track. A "frilly goth anthem" about feminine darkness, plus the stunning a cappella Vincent Moon video.
• "Pakeezah" (October 2026). Written wandering old Mughal ruins in Lucknow. About her relationship to purity culture, growing up on the oppressor side of caste. The chorus hits like a reckoning.
• Qasr EP (2024). The Arooj Aftab-produced starting point. The bridge from where she was to Khudgarzi.

Where to follow

• Instagram: @sheherazaadofficial
• Bandcamp: sheherazaad.bandcamp.com
• Pre-save/pre-order Khudgarzi: idol-io.ffm.to/khudgarzi