Amir Baghiri - Ghazal
I've been listening to a lot of field recordings from the Middle East recently (a number of the releases on Sublime Frequencies) and have been getting lost in the way music is so readily accessible from the street in these regions. Amir Baghiri's Ghazal opens in the same way: by submerging you in a street somewhere in the Middle East. Voices float in the background, nearly drowned out by the music and the singer's voice. "Nasime Saba" is a pop song of the street, replete with hand drums, finger cymbals, flute and the undulating siren song of a itinerant musician. You are submerged in a culture thick with a constant flood of music from hidden speakers, street musicians, distant prayer calls, and the rhythmic patter of the language. The trick with Ghazal is that everything is composed, recorded, played and mixed by Baghiri himself.
Baghiri is recreating the vibrant energy of the Middle East in the studio, mixing the spontaneous rhythms of the marketplace and the city streets with carefully edited loops and field recordings. An ocean wave draws us in to "Shure Baran," a liquid wash of sound that transports us to a seaside community where a five piece percussion ensemble is banging out a rhythmic piece. It almost feels live until studio effects warp the sound, altering the rhythm and distorting the clarity of the drums. It is a Muslimgauze-like effect (a comparison which you really can't avoid when talking about Middle Eastern rhythms being distorted by authorial manipulation), but with more subtlety and less abrasiveness. The subtle field recordings wash across track divisions, lending a cohesive flow to the music as if we were sampling the ethnic music styles of the region. The ocean tide of "Shure Baran" gives way to a field of buzzing and chirping insects in "Daryaie Golfeshan," a lengthy piece that gradually winds up to a tumultuous explosion of sound before fading again into the distant burr of insect noise. "Eshragh" returns us to the street corner again and Baghiri works in cut-up loops and a persistent background crackle of insect life and whispering noise. "Sukhte Balha" builds as a duet between a water faucet and a field recording of street vendors and sing-song conversations.
And everywhere there are drums: Khaliji drums, the Persian tumbak, the Egyptian dumbak, liquid drums, bendirs, the Azerbaijan frame drum, surdo, djembes, tamborin, the Persian zarb and Dohol drums. Ghazal is a sea of drums, beats, rhythms and percussive threads which run run run throughout the tracks. Baghiri's fingers and hands are never still on Ghazal. The more I listen to Ghazal, the more I get lost in the vibrant texture and hypnotic complexity of Baghiri's compositions. Highly recommended.
Amir Baghiri
Vivo [2004]
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