A national pride of Quebec, the Constantinople ensemble (here in duet format with Kiya Tabassian on setar and Patrick Graham on percussion) meets Scandinavian folklore in the person of Norwegian-born violinist Benedicte Maurseth. Persian music meets Nordic music, the palatial meanders of ancient Persepolis meet the snowy forests of the North. This is hardly surprising, given that Tabassian has been based in Montreal for some time now. So he has a deep knowledge of ‘nordicity’. Not surprising either, given the increasingly frequent links between Northern European culture and Quebec (think of the success of the Fikas festival), and finally, given Tabassian’s ultra-curious nature as a tireless discoverer and explorer of new artistic friendships.
Maurseth’s violin, the hardanger (a folk instrument with sympathetic strings that give it that distinctive sound), is here integrated into the sound factory of the two Montrealers with great elegance and respect, so much so that the boundary between purely Scandinavian and Persian melodies seems more often than not to disappear in the face of the simple humanistic sharing that results from this encounter. One has the impression of witnessing an intimate artistic communion, like the shared contemplation of the same magnificently starry sky simultaneously enjoyed somewhere in the Zagros mountains and in a fjord near Oslo. Nordic lights in a Persian sky.
An album of rare intercultural poetry.
