Jostojoo SONGLINES - Laudan Nooshin

Juices from many fruites, none diluted.

This new album by classically trained Iranian singer Mamak Khadem draws together music and musicians from a wide range of musical and cultural backgrounds including Persian, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Kurdish and Baluchi. The result is a vibrant mix which, despite the diversity, has a surprisingly strong sense of coherence. It's inspired by Khadem's travels in the region. Her many years of experience in bridging cultural and musical boundaries comes across strongly and it would be hard to find music which more effectively explores across cultural connections but which is at the same time strongly rooted in the local traditions represented. Each track features a different combination of musicians and instruments, resulting in a diverse sound palate including qanun, duduk, ney, ghijak, accordion and a battery of percussion instruments of various kinds. The emotional range of the music, from the soulful depth of "Bisotoon', bsed on the story of Frahad and Shirin (Iran's Romeo and Juliet), to the boisterous dance rhythms of 'Jostojoo', based on a Greek melody, combined with the wonderfully versatile musicians, Khadem's velvety voice and the imaginative arrangements of Jamshied Sharifi and Khadem herself, all render this a truly life-affirming album. The lyrics (all in Persian except for some Turkish in 'Heydar') are also diverse, from the poetry of Baba Taher and Rumi to contemporary Iranian poets and folk poetry from Baluchistan in south-eastern Iran. This is fusion at its best: a seamless musical fabric which provides the best evidence that there never was any such thing as a 'pure' musical tradition in this part of the world, where the cross-cultural connections go back for millennia.