i discovered this music purely by accident. by looking up one artist on the internet, i found Nusrat. now, close to ten years later, i have been sent [now get this, it gets freaky]: the son of the first artist i was looking up doing a cover of Nusrat. {enter X-File zone: both the father and the son died at the same age, both of drowning in a river!!!!!!!!}

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a tremendously large man, which was his undoing in the end. his family has sung "Qawwali" music for like nine generations. the music originated in the 1300's-1500's as love songs and devotional poems to Allah. those songs and poems were sung the same way, again and again.
<a href='http://nusrat.com/' target='_blank'>Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan</a> this is a page about his work.
if you go to amazon.com and search for him, you can find sound clips.
he performed with a troop of perhaps ten to twelve. the instruments included drums, harmoniums, (and VERY RARELY anything else), except lots of rhythmic clapping. it is a 'call and return' vocal style wherein the lead vocalist will sing one line and the remaining troop with sing it back to him. sometimes they do this several times....the intent is to bring the listener past the words and into a deeper meaning. "what the listener needs to hear..."

the lyrics of one song may be only twenty lines long, but the song may be 23 minutes. intermixed among the lyrics are Nusrat doing some extemporaneous "scatt". i'm not sure what other term to use. scatt is the only i know. he makes these punctuated repetitative noises, it's inspiring.
this music has been sung for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.
and i absolutely positively love it.
(i'm telling you, and trust your uncle chicken here, when the man sang, he left this earth!)

it would go to a desert isle with me.

it's a repeat, but i love this picture:

the samples you find on the internet are muted and muffed. i hate them. the real music is wonderful, truly awesome.
pm me an addy.