Spirit & Passion is a unique collaboration between flamenco legend Paco Peña and sitar giant Nishat Khan.

The performance brings alive ancient musical links between Flamenco and the deserts of Rajasthan in India. This musical encounter isn't so much a fusion, but more a reunion of musical cousins after centuries of separation. The legend goes that many centuries ago, tribes of nomadic peoples from Rajasthan migrated and settled in places all around Europe. It is said that the gypsies who arrived in Spain around the 15th Century, were descendents from these peoples and in Andalucía they found a land full of ‘oriental’ musical elements, from Arabs, Jews etc, who had lived there for centuries past. The Gypsies thus joined in and strongly contributed to the forging of the vibrant musical culture that is Flamenco.

Spirit & Passion pays a tribute to the bohemian spirit of this gypsy culture in a fierce and sensual improvisation with extended time signatures and modal structures shared by both Indian and Spanish tradition.

Nishat Khan abandons the controlled passion of the Indian classical ragas and enters a spellbinding world of "fiery fretwork, sublime string sonorities" and intense rhythmical counterpoint between cajones, heated handclaps, and tablas.

Paco Peña’s group comprises of himself plus another guitarist, 2 singers and a cajón player; on the other side there is sitar, tabla, drone, and Nishat Khan will also sing.

"Fiery fretwork, sublime string sonorities" Evening Standard

" Investigating the Indo-Iberian interface has become a fruitful area of fusion, with many musicians exploring these links in their music. But -with all due respect to the others - Khan & Peña's Spirit and Passion is a real meeting of heavyweights" Time Out