A Window to Color

Mamak Khadem has been woefully neglected by UK world music promoters and producers. She started her performing career as lead vocalist of the California-based Iranian diaspora fusion band Axiom of Choice, and has spent many years exploring the intersections between different musical traditions, mostly across the Middle East and Mediterranean. For her first solo album, Khadem worked with musicians from a range of backgrounds, including Persian, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Kurdish and Baluchi. This second album, featuring some of the same musicians, continues in the same vein but with a somewhat stronger flavour of her native Iran. The music was composed by Khadem and is set to the mystical poetry of Sohrab Sepehri (1929-1980), one of the most influential Iranian poets of the 20th century. The arrangements reflect the strong spiritual message of the lyrics, commenting on the human condition and man’s relationship with God. The words are central to the album, and in places poetry is recited over the music. The liner notes translate many of the lyrics into English, plus additional information on Sepehri and his poetry.

In addition to Khadem’s mesmerising vocals, the listener is treated to a wonderful array of instrumental colours, particularly from the duduk, saxophone, clarinet and zorna. The zorna features on ‘From Green to Green’ and its whirling circular tunes perfectly evoke the folk music and dance of rural Iran. Other tracks, such as ‘Rapture’, showcase energetic percussion, most notably on the daf (frame drum) played by Khadem, using rhythms drawn from local Iranian Sufi traditions. This is music rooted in centuries of tradition, but with a strong contemporary edge. Khadem is definitely a voice that needs to be heard and hopefully this album will help make her better known in the UK. And not before time.