LAHORE: The Alhamra Arts Council in Pakistan’s Lahore briefly felt like a crossroads of continents as Portuguese multi-instrumentalist Ricardo Passos delivered a sweeping, soul-stirring performance that transported audiences far beyond the city’s cultural heart.
Passos, born in Porto in 1977, has spent more than 20 years tracing musical lineages across Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe. His arrival in Pakistan marks another step in what he describes as a lifelong search for the cultural threads that bind global sound.
Before reaching Lahore, Passos performed at the World Cultural Festival in Karachi and led a workshop at the National College of Arts. But it was his evening at Alhamra that crystallized his Pakistani journey. A night when his collection of instruments became vehicles for storytelling.
Walking on stage with what looked like a small museum of world traditions, Passos opened with the soft, mournful breath of the Armenian duduk. From there, the performance unfolded like a map in motion: the airy Brazilian flute, the shimmering mbira from Zimbabwe, the deep resonance of the Gabonese ngombi, and the piercing lyricism of the Turkish saz.
He shifted between them intuitively, guided less by sequence than by feeling. At times, he added only his voice, rhythmic breaths, raga-inspired tones, raw percussive sounds, creating layers that blurred geography and genre. The hall responded in stillness, the audience leaning into every transition.
For Passos, the journey behind the music is as important as the sound itself. “It began with music,” he told Pakistan TV Digital, “but somewhere along the way, I realized it was leading back to myself.”
What started as exploration, he explained, became a spiritual path. A way to engage with ancient traditions and the deeper folds of personal identity.
As the final notes dissolved into applause, it was evident that Alhamra had hosted more than a concert. Lahore had witnessed a traveler share an entire world, one instrument, one story, one emotion at a time.
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