Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily have teamed up for a new collaborative album, Love in Exile. Listen to lead single “To Remain/To Return” below. The album is due out March 24 via Verve. They also announced a string of tour dates, kicking off March 31 in Knoxville, Tennessee, at Big Ears Music Festival and wrapping up October 12 in Iowa City, Iowa, at the Infinite Dream Festival. Check out the full list of dates below.

The trio first played together in New York City in 2018 in an unplanned, improvised performance, and performed five more times before recording their debut. In a statement, Iyer said of the collaboration: “Our music is a process. This fragment of ‘To Remain / To Return’ reveals not just the melody but the birth of a song. I hear Shahzad and myself establishing these haunted cycles, then slowly and delicately transforming them, as Arooj glides across like a dark moon.”

Aftab adds: 

“This piece holds, at its core, the delicately unfolding emotion of separation anxiety induced fury (see: love, self exile) between two people who are deeply connected. One is leaving and the other is asking them to stay. The former is saying ‘I will leave but I will also return’; in better form for the both of us.”

Ismaily continued: 

“We all provide the best we can. In my case it’s Euclidean rhythms, crystals to hold the oceanic beauty of Vijay’s keys and the silent raven of Arooj’s voice. We grow to the company that we keep; I am both fortunate and grateful.”

Aftab recently performed “Udhero Na” with Anoushka Shankar at the 2023 Grammys. At last year’s show she took home the Grammy for Best Global Music Performance with “Mohabbat,” from her 2021 LP Vulture Prince. Iyer’s trio with Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey released their LP Uneasy in 2021.

Jazz Innovator Vijay Iyer on the Music That Made Him

Love in Exile:

01 To Remain/To Return
02 Haseen Thi
03 Shadow Forces
04 Sajni
05 Eyes of the Endless
06 Sharabi
07 To Remain/To Return (Excerpt)

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily:

03-31 Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Music Festival
04-14 North Bethesda, MD – The Music Center at Strathmore
04-28 Burlington, VT – UVM Recital Hall
05-07 Krems an der Donau, Austria – Donaufestival, Minoritenkirche
05-09 Brussels, Belgium – Les Nuits Botanique Festival, Notre Dame Church
05-11 Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Neimënster
05-13 Berlin, Germany – XJazz! Festival, Emmauskirche
05-25 Hamburg, Germany – Elbphilharmonie
05-29 Zürich, Switzerland – Moods
05-30 Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli Vredenburg
06-02 London, England – The Barbican Centre
06-26 Vancouver, British Columbia – Vancouver Jazz Festival
06-28 Ottawa, Ontario – Ottawa Jazz Festival
06-29 Montréal, Quebec – Montreal Jazz Festival
07-27 North Adams, MA – Bang on a Can’s: Loud Weekend 2023 at Mass MoCA
07-29 Katonah, NY – Caramoor Center for the Arts
09-14 New York, NY – Venue TBA
09-19 San Diego, CA – Epstein Family Amphitheatre
09-20 Los Angeles, CA – Venue TBA
09-21 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
09-28 Tempe, AZ – Tempe Center for the Arts
09-29 Austin, TX – Venue TBA
09-30 Denver, CO – Venue TBA
10-04 Cleveland, OH Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art
10-05 Princeton, NJ – Venue TBA
10-07 Blacksburg, VA – Venue TBA
10-08 Boston, MA – Institute of Contemporary Art
10-10 Minneapolis, MN – The Cedar
10-11 Chicago, IL – Venue TBA
10-12 Iowa City, IA – Infinite Dream Festival