‘Blue as the Turquoise Night’ by Eric Jacobsen, Kayhan Kalhor and Sandeep Das
10 December 2021
I first discovered the Iranian musician Kayhan Kalhor through his 2004 album with Ali Akbar Moradi, ‘In the Mirror of the Sky’. Kalhor plays the kamancheh - a Persian bowed string instrument - and combines Iranian classical music with Kurdish folk music. His playing has a beautiful, eerie quality. I love ‘Silent City’, the album he made with the Brooklyn Rider string quartet In 2008 which creates a stunning ambient sound world, like a film score for an imaginary film. This week I have been listening to ‘Blue as the Turquoise Night’, a new album by Kayhan Kalhor, Eric Jacobsen and Sandeep Das. It’s an interesting collection of pieces including ‘Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur’, a four-movement work composed by Kayhan Kalhor for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble, here featuring Kalhor’s kamancheh soaring over a full string orchestra, accompanied by Sandeep Das on tabla. But the track that has really caught my attention is the sublime ‘Atashgah’, composed for Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider by Colin Jacobsen, one of the quartet’s violinists, here in a version for string orchestra conducted by the composer’s brother Eric Jacobsen. Kalhor’s kamancheh has an improvised conversational quality, appearing to tell a passionate story that builds to a joyous conclusion backed by luscious string harmonies. In complete contrast, the album also includes two Balkan tunes featuring the New York Gypsy All Stars and an RD Burman Bollywood composition arranged for tabla and strings. It’s an odd but fascinating mixture.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 3:20 pm
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