Breath | Ah |Aliento
Farnaz Ohadi
AIR Music Group (Farnazohadi.com)
Persia and Spain seem too geographically apart for the musical traditions to collide. But ancient travel does throw up incredible surprises, such as when the Persian scholar Zaryab established a conservatoire in Cordoba 1000 years ago. Persia’s music also bears the influence of Mughal North India. Afghan, Azeri traditions are also intertwined with Persian ones as are those of Andalusia that might have come via Arabia.
The Canadian-created double-CD Breath owes its magical veritas to Farnaz Ohadi who “blends” Persian maqam (modes) seamlessly with the flamenco guitar of Gaspar Rodríguez.
Listening to Farsi lyrics sung, mystically, Sufi-style by the smoky-voiced Ohadi is quite eye-popping and spectacular. Moreover, the flamenco-style strumming and dark chords by Rodríguez makes for a very unusual, but spectacular encounter with Ohadi’s vocals.
Ohadi’s and Rodríguez’s musical ingenuity goes a step further by orchestrating the music incorporating Lebanese or Phoenician traditions. This provides a brilliant new fluid dynamics, making everything fit like a velvet glove.
Both discs are superb. Disc one’s Anda jaleo – the bulerias flamenco – is exquisite, providing much freedom for improvisation, and variable metre. The song Oriyan, a hypnotic solea, and Resurrection, which melds the chanted seguidillas rhythms to close out the disc, are superb. After three eloquent vocal songs – especially the Persian folk song, Yar – disc two closes out with five instrumentals. Of these, the song Erev and the instrumental rendition of Oriyan are truly spectacular.
