April 1999

13166 THE SEPHARDIC EXPERIENCE, VOLUME 1: THORNS OF FIRE - THE RENAISSANCE PLAYERS, WINSOME EVANS - DIRECTOR

Another well–known name in Australian early music is that of Winsome Evans and her Renaissance Players. This particular disc (or series—Vol 2 will be reviewed soon) could fit equally well into 'World Music' or even, although I may receive hate mail for this, 'Ambient'. Early music recordings are generally pretty good when it comes to liner notes. There's a basic understanding that some sort of scholarship was involved in getting the performance together, and that such scholarship is worth sharing. Winsome Evans has seized this ideal with a passion and provided thoroughly comprehensive notes on the fascinating and poignant stories behind this music. It's a disc that I think many people will enjoy, even those who won't give the booklet more than a cursory glance. The scholarship makes for convincing, thoughtful performances.

This volume centres on themes of the rose, the sea and the siren', and it contains enough heart–throbbing love lyrics to melt the most hardened modernist. The bulk of the disc consists of traditional music arranged for the Renaissance Players and their amazing collection of instruments which are struck, plucked, bowed and blown to considerable effect. There is a recited poem or two, as can often be found with this ensemble in live performance. Although the rich ornamentation of the vocal lines sounds carefully prepared, Mina Kanaridis and Melissa Irwin present the songs with touching sincerity and expressiveness, particularly in the lower registers of the voice.

The sound quality is often almost unnaturally reverberant, which in more densely–textured music might have been a problem. It can get a little tiresome, as though the producer has just fallen for Enya in a big way. But thankfully, it mostly just allows the dreamy melismas to wander off into the aural equivalent of darkness, giving a very special atmosphere. Recommended on several counts, and I look forward to the next instalment.

• Katherine Kemp

13151 THE MUSIC OF ISLAM, VOLUME ELEVEN: MUSIC OF YEMEN - VARIOUS ARTISTS

I think this recording is unique in terms of the very nature of the music and the occasion it captures. In any event, it's wonderful. It was recorded in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. The city's location is remote, to say the least—high in the mountains of the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsular. Music and poetry—usually interlinked—are a rich and strong element in the culture, but are not to be found in concert halls or venues open to the general public, nor are they commonly captured in a recording studio. Music is almost invariably part of a social occasion, and the quasi–regular performances of high quality occur at afternoon or evening gatherings of the city's elite in private houses.

This CD was recorded at such an afternoon social gathering (known as magyal, meaning place of rest, afternoon rest). A different vocal soloist is heard on each of the seven cuts. Four of the singers are also very deft players of the oud (the fretless, Arabic lute). An oud is invariably present, and the singing lutenists are their own primary accompanists. Percussionists and chorus–response singers are also heard. Very broadly, the predominant flavour is 'Arabic classical cum Yemeni folk', and the music is at once highly structured and improvisational. All singers and players are at least very good, and a couple are much more than that. Via the sampler CD to the 15 volume Music of Islam series, I'd already heard an edited version of the opening song, centred upon the voice and oud of Saleh Abdul Baqi. The full version of Ya Rabbat el-Husn (Oh Goddess of Beauty) is 10 minutes of sublime singing and playing—at once very refined, and passionate, with a definite Indian influence audible. Music doesn't get much better than this, and it alone would make the album worth purchasing.

Happily, there's another quite different but equally sublime song, and several others that are very fine indeed. Abdelrahman Imri has a prodigiously liquid voice which soars and swoops gloriously on the CD's final number which praises the gathering itself. Each singer and song are quite different, most obviously on cut three, which features the one female singer present: Iman Ibrahim sings a modern love song, with oud, percussion, and chorus singers accompanying and responding to her strong, rich and urgent vocal. As is invariably true of this series, the CD booklet is very informative. However, the music stands very well, alone. If you're generally partial to Arabic music, I'm sure you'll love it. If you'd like to discover Arabic song, this is an excellent place to start. The sound quality is very good, and there's not a trace of self–consciousness audible, which is remarkable when one considers that New Zealanders David and Kay Parsons were almost certainly the first people granted permission to make a proper recording of such an occasion.

• Doug Spencer

March 1998

Parsons' progress: The Music of Islam

The faith claims one billion adherents, yet its musical scope has never been documented properly...until now. Doug Spencer reports on a roaming New Zealander's monumental recording project...

19907 THE MUSIC OF ISLAM (17 CD BOXED SET) - VARIOUS ARTISTS

A trip to your local record shop could lead you to believe that Cajuns comfortably outnumber Muslims. Most of the former comprise a substantial minority in the American state of Louisiana. The latter account for one fifth of the world's population, and theirs is the dominant culture in more than 50 nation states. Should your earnings be average and Cajun be your one and only musical love, you could easily devote all your disposable income to Cajun CDs. The music of Islam ranges across several continents, and many more styles and instruments, but even if your friendly local retailer set aside for you each every new 'Islamic' CD that came into the shop, you'd almost certainly be left with plenty of spare cash.

Australia has many 'world class' arts festivals. This writer has attended many and has seen the brochures for almost all of them in recent years. Yes, we have had Whirling Dervishes, and the late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan did enjoy headliner status. But what of Arabic Classical music? It's an ancient, refined and living musical tradition, as is Persian Art Music. I have never seen a soloist or ensemble from either tradition presented as a major attraction at any of our festivals (I have seen a lutenist from Palestine. He was in a state of despair in a small tent at WOMADelaide. His playing of the oud was exquisite, albeit ill–served by an atrocious sound–mix which was in any event often almost–obliterated by the mega–amplified 'world' cliches booming over from a nearby 'main' stage). So, for most Australian listeners (in fact, most Westerners) just about everything on The Music of Islam is likely to be a real revelation. Indeed, it ranges so broadly ó from Morocco to Indonesia, geographically speaking—that at least some of the music is likely to be a revelation to just about anybody, whatever their religion or nation. For example, there can't be too many people who'll be unsurprised by Volume Eight: Folkloric Music of Tunisia, on which the lead melodic instrument is a kind of bagpipe.

If you are an eclectically–inclined music enthusiast, there's a good chance you'll have previously come across David Parsons. He's a musician and composer in his own right, but the roaming New Zealander will probably win lasting recognition as one of this century's greatest exponents of 'field recording'. He's worthy of mention in the same breath as the legendary Alan Lomax. Parsons shares Lomax's key virtues: a keen sense of who and what are actually worth recording, and the ability to capture really vibrant performances. This is only in part a matter of having the right equipment and knowing how to use it; there's no longer any legitimate excuse for 'field recording' meaning 'dreadful sound quality' (although it sometimes still does!). A 'field recording' made by a skilled recordist in the 1990s can reasonably be expected to offer a tolerably clean and vivid, stereophonic sound picture. Routinely hi–fi as many 'field recordings' now are, they still oft contain stilted or lacklustre performances. The stranger conspicuously wielding a microphone oft has the same unfortunate effect on those whose artistry he seeks to capture as do strangers with cameras! Parsons very obviously knows what he's doing technically (as must Kay Parsons who was also involved in making most of these recordings), but his most important skill is his ability to inspire his subjects to be themselves, passionately. That's previously been apparent on recordings made in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and most especially in Armenia (the latter series is an important project in its own right which arose almost accidentally whilst Parsons was ostensibly working on The Music of Islam). As with the best of Lomax's field recordings, Parsons' make you think the musicians have 'forgotten all about the microphone' yet at the same time are really relishing the opportunity to document their culture for both their own and others' benefit.

Celestial Harmonies—the Tucson based label run by Eckart Rahn—has been blessed by having access to Parsons, and vice versa. How many other skilled recordists/enthusiasts share Parsons' commitment? He's devoted much of the past ten years to this project, and experienced all kinds of difficulties and even dangers, including walking into a war. How many other recording companies would have undertaken such a project and then stuck with it as time went on and costs mounted?

A feature of all of the Parsons–recorded CDs for Celestial Harmonies is the care he and the label have taken to inform the listener of their context, with both detailed individual tracknotes and broader cultural and historical notes. Indeed, they sometimes look almost too 'worthy': I suspect that some music lovers who would enjoy them hugely may have passed them by in the mistaken belief that the music thereon must be terribly dry, duty, academic or inaccessible. The Music of Islam has fifteen volumes, two of which are double–CDs. Custom–written for each volume are detailed tracknotes and background information pertinent to that particular disc. Common to each booklet is a series of general background articles excerpted from various existing publications. These give historical and other information on music in the Islamic world, on Islamic history more generally (with particular attention to Western attitudes to Islam and to Muslim attitudes to the West), and on Islamic calligraphy (each and every volume has different examples thereof on their covers and inside the booklets, complete with individual notes on each example. There are also other illustrations and photographs in each booklet). All 15 volumes (17 CDs) will be available together in a wooden box, and each will be available, individually. In addition, there's the currently–available sampler CD which contains one selection from each volume.

Any general library, school or similar institution should consider The Music of Islam an essential purchase in its entirety. But what about the rest of us? How many people are going to want to listen to a Moroccan Sufi ceremony in its entirety? Volume Five: Aissaoua Sufi Ceremony Marrakesh Morocco is to my knowledge the only such high quality recording of such an event. It documents an actual ceremony which took place at night in the courtyard of a house deep in the medina of Marrakesh. The microphone was taped to an orange tree and at times had to be covered with a white cloth, as participants were not allowed to see anything black. The production team also could not wear any black clothing, and since the ceremony's participants were entering a trance state, particular care had to be taken to keep the microphone 'out of the way' lest it be attacked or accidentally damaged by a participant. The resulting recording merits the adjective 'extraordinary', and the fervour and drama are indelibly apparent to any listeners—assuredly they'll feel they've been taken 'right there' and that the participants are moving around them. That said, I suspect I will not be alone in finding more than two hours of it around one and half hours more than I could really enjoy!

As I write, the CD just mentioned is one of only four volumes which have rolled off the presses and crossed the oceans to me. The others I've heard in their entirety are the aforementioned Tunisian volume, and volumes six (Gnawa Music, recorded in Morocco) and fourteen (Mystic Music Through The Ages, recorded in Istanbul, with refined playing by members of the Galata Mevlevi Music and Sema Ensemble accompanying the beautiful singing of the Ensemble's Director, Al-Sheikh Nail Kesova). All of them are absolutely authentic, are recorded very well, and contain passionate, committed performances. I find I enjoy the Tunisian volume a lot provided I hear it only in small doses. I really like the Gnawa songs but find I enjoy then more if I don't listen to more than half of the album at once. I can very happily listen straight through to Volume Fourteen.

The other 11 volumes I know only by their covers and by the single selection from each on the sampler CD. Incidentally, there are some nice Australian connections. The example of Islamic calligraphy on the cover of the sampler is an especially commissioned work by Queenslander, Lance Bressow, and the digital mastering of the whole series was done in Sydney by Don Bartley. Common to all the music is an unmistakable fervour, regardless of whether it sounds 'classical' or 'folk', 'very refined' or 'crude'. Most (but not quite all) of it is explicitly devotional; whether music is permissible at all remains a live issue in Islam, and in some cases what I would call music is not even given that name. The sheer conviction that's unmistakably present is likely sometimes to be 'part of the attraction' and at others 'a real problem' for the non–Muslim, and more particularly for the listener who is not a capital 'b' Believer of any persuasion. For example, I do feel an outsider when listening to Volume Five; I can clearly hear that the participants are having a transcendant experience whilst being conscious that I am not having one, and that my attention is flagging. Yet, listening to Volume Fourteen is a transcendant experience for this listener, notwithstanding that I'm a non–Believer and have no ancestral connection whatsoever to Turkey. Each listener's experience will be different, but I find myself in a similar position as I do with 'Christian' music: some of it moves me deeply, and some of it does not. If the sampler is representative, I'm not going to be very excited by Volume Fifteen: Muslim Music of Indonesia (the one volume NOT produced by Parsons) and I suspect that Volume Two: Music of the South Sinai Bedouins will move me only in small doses, notwithstanding its irresistible recording circumstance—in the desert at night under a full moon. But I can hardly wait to hear more of Volume Eleven: Music of Yemen, which was recorded at a musical soiree in a private house, which featured seven different singers. Saleh Abdul Baqui is the one on the sampler; his singing is exquisite and I suspect he is the very fine lutenist. t's a particularly good example of Parsons' ability to capture properly an intimate kind of performance which hardly ever makes it onto disc. There's obviously also some beautiful playing of the oud in an Arabic–classical instrumental context on Volume Four: Music of the Arabian Peninsula. Volume Thirteen: Music of Pakistan is centred upon the glorious singing of Ustad Bary Fateh Ali Khan in a classical context that's 'Hindustani' rather than 'Qawwali' and most certainly not 'Arabic'. It's also obvious from the sampler that if you're at all partial to art music ensembles, you're likely to be very well–pleased by Volume One: Al-Qahirah/Music of Cairo, Egypt, Volume Seven: Al-Andalus/ Andulusian Music, Tetouan, Morocco and Volume Twelve: Music of Iran.

• Doug Spencer