Night Silence Desert

Amazon.com
Kayhan Kalhor is the world's leading exponent of the kamancheh, an upright spike fiddle. Renowned for his work with Ghazal, a group that bridges Indian and Persian music, he applies a similar approach to Iranian folk and classical forms on Night Silence Desert. The Radif (Persian classical repertoire) grew from folk forms, but over the centuries the music evolved from its simple rural origins into an elaborately ornamented and rigorously structured style. This album doesn't take the music back to its basics--there's too much refined virtuosity on display. But the musicians infuse their playing with a vigor and crisp cohesion that belies the record's fitful production. First Kalhor convened 11 strummers, drummers, and flute blowers in Tehran in 1994 to lay down the sweeping instrumental passages. Four years later he and vocalist Shajarian finished the record in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The two men exchange intricate call-and-response melodies that radiate impassioned exhilaration. --Bill Meyer

From Rhythm Magazine
Kayhan Kalhor, master of the kamancheh (the bowed four-string precursor to most Asian and European bowed instruments) and setar (four-string long-necked lute), composed Night Silence Desert as a contemporary experimental suite fusing Iranian folk and classical traditions. Kalhor's compositional approach explores the kinship between Persian classical forms and the folk genres of Northern Khorasan and its Central Asian analogues. Khorasan folk tunes modulate around a tonic or primary note that anchors a given scale and orients instrumental and vocal improvisation in a fluid modal system. Kalhor here recruits the world-class heritage bearer of Persian art-music singing, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, a Khorasan native of extraordinary vocal prescience, along with expert classical and folk musicians. The latter play instruments particular to Khorasan, including the dotar (two-string plucked lute) and ghooshmeh (double-reed flute). Kalhor is entirely at home with modern studio technology as well, and is not averse to using digital sampling to enhance the effects he seeks. This is a scintillating, meditative recording, exceptional in both artistic and technical terms. -Michael Stone

Tracks:

Silence Of The Night
Desert
Instrument And Vocal
Desert Night
Rain
Festive Occasion
Dotar Instrumental
Setar Instrumental
Instrument And Vocal
Lovers' Plight

Amazon.com

Kayhan Kalhor is the world's leading exponent of the kamancheh, an upright spike fiddle. Renowned for his work with Ghazal, a group that bridges Indian and Persian music, he applies a similar approach to Iranian folk and classical forms on Night Silence Desert. The Radif (Persian classical repertoire) grew from folk forms, but over the centuries the music evolved from its simple rural origins into an elaborately ornamented and rigorously structured style. This album doesn't take the music back to its basics--there's too much refined virtuosity on display. But the musicians infuse their playing with a vigor and crisp cohesion that belies the record's fitful production. First Kalhor convened 11 strummers, drummers, and flute blowers in Tehran in 1994 to lay down the sweeping instrumental passages. Four years later he and vocalist Shajarian finished the record in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The two men exchange intricate call-and-response melodies that radiate impassioned exhilaration. --Bill Meyer

Customer Reviews:

Wow! A super recording........2005-05-26

Other reviews say all needed to know. This is a incredible cd if you really love music.

Kayhan's best?.......2004-12-16

With this beautiful album, Kayhan Kalhor hoped to bring more of a traditional (rather than solely art-music) musical slant into the art music of Iran. As he states in the liner notes (and rightly so), it's not folk music, as folk music is the music by and for the people... the people who work and sing all day, and play at night. This is a concept that is the same in the USA. There is "folk music" as a genre... populated by the Kingston Trio and Joan Baez, etc... and then there is the real folk music... music played by people who broke their backs at work on railroad tracks, in coal mines, in prisons, etc... That is the heart of folk music no matter where you are in the world. Spiritual subsistence music. Kayhan wanted to bring some of that spirit and some of that melodic feel back into Iranian classical styles. He was successful.

A huge part of this success is of course due to Mohammad Reza Shajarian. His style and degree of vocal control maybe unmatched (At least in terms of men. Oftentimes I greatly prefer women singers over their male counterparts) by all but a few other men on the whole planet.

Kayhan really is the spark behind all of this, though. Mohammad is the voice, but Kahyan is the reason this exists at all. His kamancheh playing is, as usual, gorgeous... and you also get a larger glimpse into his setar playing than is usual, at least by the standards of his other discs that I own. Although if i remember correctly, my favorite instance of his setar playing is on the Yo-Yo Ma Silk Road disc. I need to pop that one in again. It's been a while.

This isn't his most well-recorded disc... it's certainly not at the level of the 2 Ghazal albums I have, or Scattering Stars Like Dust, but I think the quality of the performance makes up for it.

BEAUTIFUL AND TRANSPORTING..........2004-05-16

NIGHT SILENCE DESERT is described in the notes to this CD as a `Khorasan suite' - Khorasan, Iran's largest province, located in the eastern part of the country and home to Masshad, the nation's holiest city, can be roughly translated as `the place where the sun rises'. Kayhan Kalhor has composed the music on this disc based on the classical and folk musics of Khorasan, inspired by his love for the form. The notes that accompany the disc go into great detail concerning the differences and similarities between the classical and folk forms - but rather than writing like a cold theoretician, Kalhor's respect and passion for the music makes the explanation interesting reading.

Kalhor is a master performer on the kemancheh (the traditional bowed lute of the region, widely used in Arab and Middle Eastern music) and setar (a 4-stringed plucked lute) - he is joined here by an exceptionally talented ensemble featuring dotar (a 2-stringed lute), barbat (oud), santur (an instrument similar to the Western hammered dulcimer), nay (a reed flute), ghooshmeh (a double-reed flute), cello, and assorted percussion instruments. The ten tracks on the disc flow together wonderfully - sometimes so smoothly that the listener might not notice the track has changed until the subtle shifts in mood and melody become apparent.

The words sung in the four vocal sections are, like the music, a mixture of ancient and modern - two are by masters from the 11th and 13th century, and two are by contemporary poets. The ghazal form of lyrical expression is one of the most moving and beautiful to be found in the world - and while the pieces on this disc are not sung in English, there are translations provided. The emotions expressed in the poetry are given glorious flight by the voice of Shajarian, one of the most respected vocalists in Persian music today - listening to his performances here, it's easy to understand why he is so revered.

Far from being a `fusion' disc, the music here (at least to my untrained ears) remains true to the essence of Persian classical music. This album is a real treat.

Virtuosity, Perceivable Even by Novices.......2002-12-08

One need not be steeped in the traditions of Persian/Iranian music to perceive the beauty and mastery of the musicians and music on this CD. From my perspective, when one reaches a certain level of artistic excellent, it is foolhardy to split hairs over whether one is listening to a "good" recording rather than a "great" one. For me, this music--hauntingly evocative, spiritual, and luminous in its beautiful complexity--is of the highest order of artistry.

This is a recording one can listen to repeatedly, each time discovering new nuances and patterns missed before. Highly recommended.

Awsome!!.......2002-06-16

This CD has to rank among the "cream of the crop" of contemporary renditions of taditional Persian music. I own a large selection of them and this is one of my most favorite. The lyrics are based on poems by such luminaries as H.A. Sayeh, Attar, and Baba Taher. The song "Baran" is nostalgic, sad and mesmerising.... I have to stop whatever I'm doing and just sink into this song. Kalhor is a magnificent artist and kamanche player -- i've seen him live in concert. Shadjarian is unrivaled. The dotar by hadj ghorban soleimani is great but doesn't really stand out in this CD -- he and his music are authentic folk music of N. Khorassan (which province in Iran i'm from :) i recommend buying his own CD. The CD insert contains a detailed description of the various instruments, all poems in the original Farsi as well as English translations. All in all a magnificent production and masterly composition from the poems to the vocals to the music. This is truely a gem of craftsmanship and artistary and i'm proud to be able to recomment it. :)

This is the CD that moved Simin Behbahani, Iran's preeminent living poetess, to utter "My heart was beating fast with every note of the tar and my throat was choking up." [p.13 in "Kojast Fekre Hakimi?", Ketab Corp, LA, 2003]