SafarNameh is an album of scholarly music for non-Western percussion with contributions from Persian kamancheh. The Montrealers Ziya Tabassian, an excellent percussionist, and Sareh Borna on the kamancheh, invite us to a crossroads that is as studied as it is improvised, of Persian, Indian, and Thai music and rhythms. A meeting based on cycles of 16 beats that Tabassian declines in all sorts of subdivisions that evoke certain traditions, or stylistic colours, of one of the three traditions mentioned above. Often, it is classical Persian melodies, the musical roots of Tabassian and Borna, that serve as the basis for exploration. Elsewhere, it is the rhythmic cycles that stimulate creativity.
As a lover of these musical expressions without being a scholarly specialist, perhaps like you, I was particularly swept away by the pieces SaharNameh and BaazNameh, with their propulsive rhythms and hypnotic melodies set to the shrill sound of the kamancheh. Some pieces also include bols (mnemonic syllables (ex: ta, ka, dhi, mi) that represent the sounds of percussion, and are based on the Konnakol system of Indian music). They are sung by Tabassian, sometimes in multiple tracks to give the impression of several simultaneous voices.
In Persian, nameh means “book” or “collection.” As a result, the titles refer to musical “books,” such as the travel book for SafarNameh, the Sufi book for SoufiNameh, or the Shur book (which is a Persian and Azerbaijani musical mode) for ShurNameh, etc.
If you appreciate the intellectual and aesthetic stimulation of rich and complex music (from all geographical origins), this penetrating album will certainly delight you.
