Faraz Anwar is a Pakistani guitarist from Karachi, known for his solo instrumental work and his band Mizraab. He has been called "Pakistan's master of progressive rock.
Biography
Faraz Anwar, born on 15th July 1976 in Karachi, is a progressive Rock Guitarist. He started his music journey at the age of six when he, for the very first time, saw Yngwie Malmsteen on T.V. The bone chilling inspiration led him to pick up guitar as his beloved instrument. Started playing guitar in 1990, Faraz went on to collaborate with a long list of Pakistani musicians like Ali Haider, Junoon, Fakhr-e-Alam, Junaid Jamshed, Sajjad Ali,Strings and Nadeem Jaffri to name a few. His first international live performance was with Sajjad Ali for his album Babia. His first composition "Akela", roared across the screen and at the famous music charts MCC 1 way back in 1993. In 1996, living in Pakistan, he sent his instrumental demo tapes to Berklee College of Music Boston resulting in winning him scholarship but due to domestic issues he could not go. Later as an acknowledgment, they presented him with “Outstanding Musical Achievement Award 1996. A name known & admired internationally; Faraz Anwar, made his first experimental album ‘Panchi’ in 1998 which the record label released unfinished and without Faraz's permission. In 2001, Gnarly Geezer released his first solo instrumental album “Abstract Point Of View”. The record label of late Allan Holdsworth. The album earned him international recognition. The album received appreciation from Allan Holdsworth. This album earned him a place among Gnarly Geezer Artists. Later in 2004, Lion Music Records of Finland re-released the album. He wrote the music, played all the instruments and sequenced all the tracks himself and was recorded in DFS in just four months. Currently, Faraz is Lion Music Records artist. In 2004, His black/death metal band “Dusk” & a progressive metalsolo project “Mizraab” was launched. Dusk consisted of Faraz Anwar and Babar Sheikh. Faraz composes, synthesizes and played guitars. The first album by Dusk was “My Infinite Nature Alone”, which a Portuguese label released in 1996 followed by the 2nd album named "Jahilia" which was released in 2003 by Epidemie Records. Dusk toured Czech Republic and performed 13 concerts in few parts of Europe in 2006/2007. Faraz's solo project “Mizraab” exposes Faraz as a skilled multi-instrumentalist. Mizraab was post-grunge, progressive metal. Faraz single handedly managed to create concepts, compositions, guitars and drums, and khalid mustafa played Bass guitar in the album. Faraz and Jamie together mixed and Jamie mastered the album. Mizraab's first ever album “Mazi, Haal Mustaqbil” was a concept album. The videos launched are of “Insaan”, “Meri Terhan”, “Izhar” and “Kitni Saadian”. Faraz played countless sessions in collaboration with many musicians and singers. The guitar work in Junaid’s famous song “Keh do jo bhi” and numerous other songs is remarkable & still gives an identical flavor of Faraz's musical vision. Faraz displays his incantations in multiple genres of music with equal ease and virtuosity, be it blues, jazz, funk, rock or metal. Faraz has made multiple appearances in Coke Studio. First time was in 2011 when Faraz performed "Kuch hai" with his band Mizraab.In 2014 Rohail Hayat again invited him to play in a song “Malhar” followed by another performance of his song "Ujalon mein" in 2017 season 10. Currently,Faraz Anwar new album"Ishq Ki Subah"is out & available on www.farazanwar.com "Ishq Ki Subha" is a combination of Pop,Rock and progressive songs & instrumentals. Faraz is also materializing his English album for international Music scene which is to be announced very soon.
