Kayhan Kalhor + Ali Bahrami Fard – I Will Not Stand Alone

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Ali Bahrami Fard, Bass santour, I Will Not Stand Alone, Iranian music, Kayhan Kalhor, Persian music, Shah Kaman

Iranian Heart, Iranian Soul

Kayhan Kalhor, the Iranian kamancheh (spike fiddle) player, is as consummate a musician and artist as one could dream of. He combines astonishing virtuosity and passionate immersion in his music, with playing which is charismatic, stellar – and, yet, curiously without ‘look at me ego’ or hogging centre stage, muscling out his ‘supporting musicians’ Kalhor doesn’t really do ‘supporting musicians’. He works peer to peer with other musicians

What he does do is to work with a range of other musicians, sometimes from his own culture’s musical traditions, sometimes cross culturally, as in his work with Ghazal, marrying the Iranian kamancheh with instruments from India’s classical musical tradition – sitar, tabla, vocals. And sometimes he works with musicians better known in the European classical music traditions, most notably with Yo Yo Ma, playing a wealth of Asian music in the Silk Road series of albums.

Whatever Kalhor does, he brings devotion to his work. Whatever brilliance, finesse and mastery he brings to his playing everything is designed to shine the brilliance of the music itself. There is surrender to the music, surrender to the joint practice of playing music with others, and, if you are fortunate enough to experience a live concert with Kalhor, as I recently was, surrender to the experience of unfolding and revealing music in a shared experience for the active listener to enter into this space.

This particular CD, with music which arose out of Kalhor’s own experience of his country’s recent political dark places, is a meditation on music as expression of suffering, as well as music as a shared, collective experience to provide some ease from that dark night of isolation, and existential aloneness

Here, in accompaniment with Ali Bahrami Fard, we have two musicians playing adapted versions of traditional Iranian instruments. Fard is playing the santour, a shimmering, percussive dulcimer instrument – but it is a bass santour, much larger, with a wider musical range, 96 strings, 24 bridges instead of the traditional 72 and 18

Meanwhile Kalhor is playing a new instrument, developed especially for him by the instrument maker Peter Biffen, the shah Kaman, with different stringing, and using a lighter sounding board made of wood rather than skin, with, again, the possibility of richer lower notes.

At the live concert, which this CD is a version of, the two musicians were electrifying, playing for well over an hour, a continuous piece of music (here, on the CD briefly broken into movements with track names, rather than stand alone tracks).

The music ranges from dark anguish, quiet reflection, a maelstrom of passion and energy, anger, despair, resilience, shared commitment. At times so frenetic and wild is the music that it seems impossible to sit with it, the wild expression of dance is an insistent call. Restrained by the initial hearing of the music in a concert hall, I found a subtler response, listening to the dynamic movement of the music from within physical stillness, letting the music shape itself and move within, rather than cause external movement. It deepened my appreciation of this wonderful music, and the absolute focus brought by the inspired musicians

I Will Not Stand Alone Amazon UK
I Will Not Stand Alone Amazon USA

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Ghazal – Moon Rise Over The Silk Road

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Ghazal, Kayhan Kalhor, Moon Rise Over The Silk Road, Music review, Shujaat Hussain Khan, World music review

More magic from the musicians of Ghazal as they continue along the silk road

Once again Ghazal prove they have much more to say to each other in the conversations which particularly the kamancheh and sitar, but also tabla and occasional vocals, are enjoying

In Fire In My Heart the sitar and kamancheh weave around and through each other, somehow conveying an ineffable longing, romantic and spacious, melancholy and sorrowful. It’s curiously mortal music, seeming to exist in a place which is always aware of the passing of time, that everything fades and dies, whilst it savours the moment most deeply. The vocals fall into the places gently, floating and weaving through the instruments. What strikes me so much with Ghazal is a sense of the musicians deeply listening to each other, and deeply listening to the music which is arising, whether this is reflective, or catching the moment when the mood changes, as in the second half of the first track, and becomes shimmery, brilliant and dynamic, inviting the tabla to drive this with excitement. This is a wonderful piece to dance to, as in Gabrielle Roth, Five Rhythms, allowing the music to move through the body of the listener, from flowing through staccato, chaos, lyrical and a return to stillness

The second track, Pari Mahal almost has a circle dance feel to it, with its flamboyance, trotting rhythms, dips and glides. The music and musicians show off their skills – the piece almost seems to touch close to a more Western `jamming session’, even including a small central section which sounds incredibly Celtic! Hoots Och Aye!

The final long track Besh’no az Nay seems a little more prosaic than the high wildness of the first track, a retelling of tall tales, favourite old jokes and happy moments by a group of friends at ease in each others’ company, the vocals creamy and seductive. A track to be listened to whilst savouring fine sweetmeats and small glasses of tea!
Moon Rise Over The Silk Road Amazon UK
Moon Rise Over The Silk Road Amazon USA

Ghazal – As Night Falls On The Silk Road

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As Night Falls On The Silk Road, Ghazal, India, Iran, Kamancheh, Kayhan Kalhor, Music review, Shujaat Hussain Khan, Sitar, Swapan Chaudhuri, Tabla, World music review

‘Felt In The Blood, and Felt Along The Heart’

I expect music to inhabit me, to possess me, and to speak to something I barely understand, and cannot conceptualise. The last thing i want from music is that it should be ‘a background’ – it must be an experience.

And so it is with ‘As Night Falls on the Silk Road’. This skillful and sensitive blending of the Iranian spike fiddle and the Indian sitar, tabla and devotional vocal certainly IS felt viscerally, emotionally. The bent notes of Shujaat Hussain Khan‘s sitar and unforced vocals, Kayhan Kalhor‘s kamancheh and the dynamic, full sound of Swapan Chaudhuri‘s tabla making my heart swell. There are tracks which demand the listener to move and dance under the stars (Snowy Mountains) and others, such as the longest and final track, Traces of the Beloved, which move with ease between still, internal reflection and explosion into unstoppable movement – a perfect balance between the motions of the heart itself, as it pauses and receptively fills with blood, and forcefully expels that blood through the ventricles. Heart music indeed; diastole and systole. Gorgeous.

Ghazal are an amazing and enhancing fusion group and the fine and wonderful players, coming from two venerable musical traditions, produce something new, dynamic and rich. This is music which belongs under the cold clear night sky,under vast horizons, far from the hemmed in spaces of cities, unconfined and free, music as narrative, through time and space. And if you are listening in a room, it will transport you back, and out!
As Night Falls On The Silk Road Amazon UK
As Night Falls On The Silk Road Amazon USA

For some obscure reason the live link to mp3 samples won’t work on the USA site – you need to choose the mp3 option once on the product page. Lucky UK Amazonians can find the samples no problem!