Ilyas Ahmed

Portland-based musician and visual artist Ilyas Ahmed makes a hazy yet intimate form of psychedelic folk music, utilizing acoustic and electric guitars as well as instruments such as harmonium, organ, and tanpura, in addition to ethereal effects. He was born in Pakistan in 1974 but moved to America as a youth and spent time in several locations, including New Jersey, Minnesota and eventually Oregon. He first emerged in 2005 with a series of self-released albums recorded on an isolated farm. Bearing his distinctive style of collage artwork, the releases made waves in the underg...