Silent City (CD)


Kayhan Kalhor , Brooklyn Rider

CD
Currently Unavailable
$19.98
SHIPS FREE in U.S.

Amoeba Review

Amoeba Staff 10/12/2010


Kalhor and the members of the Brooklyn Rider string quartet all met as members of Yo Yo Ma's massive Silk Road Project. Somehow they found each other amongst nearly 80 other musical participants. A native of Tehran, Kalhor is the great modern innovator of the kamanche, an ancient Persian spiked fiddle that is bowed or strummed vertically like a cello. He has played in traditional contexts, western classical festivals and cross-cultural projects like the group Ghazal and Silk Road. Silent City falls somewhat in the latter category, while employing melodies and techniques of the former. It’s simply a mesmeric effort, as language barriers and seemingly contrasting traditions are subsumed to create a variegated work of epic power and scope. The melodies are generally from Iran and Turkey, but the arrangements can slip from a moody intimacy to a fast-paced cinematic grandeur. The title track is the album's centerpiece and was initially inspired by the destruction of the city of Halabjah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, but has since become a sonic monument to fallen cities and cultures that fall victim to avaricious forces everywhere. An aural portrait of desolation is conjured via a trelliswork of glissando and minute percussive interjections. The music does not revel in the devastation, however, but slowly moves towards recovery and reconstruction as each instrument builds its own framework in parallel unison with the its neighbors. It all leads to a celebratory fanfare of new birth. The silent city was pregnant with hope all along. (John W. Garcia)



Track Listing



Disc 1 Titles
Artist
Length
1.
Ascending Bird
Kayhan Kalhor , Brooklyn Rider 06:54
2.
Silent City
Kayhan Kalhor , Brooklyn Rider 29:09
3.
Parvaz
Kayhan Kalhor , Brooklyn Rider 06:23
4.
Beloved, Do Not Let Me Be Discouraged
Kayhan Kalhor , Brooklyn Rider 10:34

CD
Currently Unavailable
$19.98
SHIPS FREE in U.S.
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