Dawoud Kringle (or, as some underground mystics of the Tri-State Area call him, Dawoud the Renegade Sufi) does not simply perform music—he enters into a conversation with it.

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Each performance becomes a living exploration, with compositions evolving in real time as he follows the currents of inspiration, intuition, and human connection. The result is music that meets listeners where they are, while inviting them somewhere unexpected.

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His Dautar—a guitar-cello-sitar hybrid custom-built by the Limulus Musical Instrument Company—reflects the same philosophy: a willingness to move beyond boundaries and discover what emerges in the spaces between traditions.

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Over the years, Dawoud has shared stages and creative projects with collaborators and fellow travelers including Lauryn Hill, Nona Hendryx, Spaghetti Eastern Music, Daniel Carter, Idris Muhammad, Mark Deutsch, SoSaLa, The Brooklyn Raga Massive Orchestra, Laraaji, Sayyd Abdul Kabir, Juni Booth, and many others. 

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His body of work includes more than sixteen solo albums, film scores, collaborations with theater and dance companies, performances throughout the United States and Europe, neoclassical compositions, a full symphony, and an orchestral fantasia inspired by a mathematical framework hidden within an American raga first heard in a dream. 

 

His creative work also extends into literature, visual art, and interdisciplinary projects.

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Those who encounter his work find themselves sharing traces of an ongoing journey, expressions of a deeper pursuit. Listeners have explored the relationship between imagination, spirituality, and human experience.

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One listener in the audience described Dawoud's music as "Hans Zimmer and Jimi Hendrix dueling over a beautiful princess from another galaxy."

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The music itself moves freely between electro-acoustic neoclassical works, chill nu-blues ragas, digital symphonies, liminal soundscapes, modal improvisations, and cross-cultural explorations. Some pieces invite and inspire reflection. Others tell stories. Some simply create a space in which listeners can discover their own world.

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Whether through recordings, live performances, commissioned compositions, literary works, visual art, or collaborative projects, the invitation remains the same: to explore music and creativity not as products, but as experiences that continue unfolding long after the final note.

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"Dawoud Kringle, aka Dawoud the Renegade Sufi, is one of the more forward-thinking, globally-centric and productive music-makers on the New York scene... Dawoud has created a musical world that unites the past, present, and future of sound. For him, no borders seem to exist, and the most distant of inspirations, the most seemingly warring thoughts can live in perfect harmony. This is music as a healing and calming force, something the world needs now more than ever."

— Sal Cataldi, NYS Music

 

"The music borrows from and advances an eclectic array of musical styles, ranging from Indian classical to trip hop to modal jazz to ambient and chill. I even hear some British pop, circa David Bowie, in there. The compositions are thoughtful and melodic. The playing is dynamic and often delightfully surprising. The lush production values are at once crisp and ethereal... The Power and the Longing is the total package."

— David Belmont, Doobeedoobeedoo.info