Beyond Borders and Brands: Humnava Launches a New Era of Independent Music from the Heart of Hunza
A landmark music and cultural residency — co-founded by Coke Studio’s Xulfi — is set to reimagine Pakistan’s place in the global music story, one original track at a time.
Somewhere between the Karakoram peaks and the quiet rhythm of Hunza’s villages, a new kind of music is about to be made. This summer, Humnava, a global music and art camp, will bring together over 20 Pakistani musicians and 8 international artists from France, Germany, Algeria, and Zambia for a 40 day immersive residency in one of the world’s most extraordinary places.
The project is the brainchild of Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan, better known as Xulfi, the producer widely credited with reshaping Pakistani pop through Coke Studio, and Muhammad Ibrahim, CEO of creative agency Giraffe. Together, they’ve built something that resists easy categorisation. It’s part residency, part cultural diplomacy, part music label, and entirely unlike anything Pakistan has hosted before.
“Humnava isn’t a festival with a line up and a stage. It’s about what happens when you put genuinely talented people from very different worlds in the same place and give them the time and space to actually listen to each other.” Xulfi, Co-founder, Humnava
The name itself, Humnava, meaning “a companion in melody and harmony,” signals what the project is really about. Not a spectacle. Connection. Over 40 days, participants will write, record, and release 9 original compositions, each shaped by the collision of genres, languages, and musical traditions. There will be daily jam sessions, instrument making workshops with local Hunzai craftsmen, wellness sessions, and three public evenings of live music open to the community called “Sham e Mastana” nights.
The choice of Hunza is deliberate on multiple levels. Its landscapes are spectacular, yes, but its people have long maintained a culture of music, art, and community that predates anything commercially packaged. Rooting Humnava here is a statement: that Pakistan’s most compelling creative assets aren’t found in studio corridors, but in its people and places.
The participating international artists bring sounds from North Africa, West Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The Pakistani contingent is equally varied, from established names to emerging voices, with the Bulbulik School Band representing the next generation entirely. The resulting music is designed not to split the difference between traditions, but to find what is genuinely shared.
“For too long, Pakistan has been a place global artists fly over rather than fly into. We want to change that, not by putting on a show for the world, but by creating something real that the world can’t ignore.” Muhammad Ibrahim, CEO, Giraffe
Beyond the music, Humnava has a structural ambition. Season 1 will produce 9 soundtracks with music videos, a feature length documentary aimed at international film festivals, and a continuous content stream of behind the scenes footage, podcasts and live jam recordings, all distributed through Spotify, YouTube, and other global platforms. Strategic partnerships with the EU, UNESCO, and the French and German embassies add a layer of cultural diplomacy weight to what is, at its heart, an artist first initiative.
Humnava is also designed to be replicable. Each season will anchor in a different Pakistani region, leaving behind creative infrastructure, trained local talent, and a documented model that governments and cultural institutions can build on. It is, in the truest sense, a proof of concept for what a structured, independent music economy in Pakistan might look like.
Humnava’s Season 1 is already underway. The project’s first song dropped on 16th April 2026, with the remaining tracks set to release on global streaming platforms as the camp progresses through its 40 days in Hunza.
ABOUT HUMNAVA
Humnava is a global music and art movement rooted in Pakistan, bringing together musicians from across the world to create, connect, and collaborate. Co-founded by producer Xulfi and Giraffe CEO Muhammad Ibrahim, it celebrates the oneness of life through sound, building bridges across people, cultures, and economies, and establishing a new blueprint for creative independence in the region.
