Falling Out of Time

Since the Silkroad Ensemble was established by Yo-Yo Ma 20 years ago, its ever- shifting ensemble have created a global musical language all its own over half a dozen audacious albums. Falling Out of Time, a recording of a ‘tone poem in voices’ composed by Osvaldo Golijov and based on the 2014 novel of the same name by the Israeli author David Grossman, is as ambitious as anything the collective has ever attempted. Golijov’s score turns the book’s theme of parents grieving for dead children into an epic lament, which draws on the music of Central Asia, avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical tropes and soulful blues wailing.

The musicians include Iran’s Kayhan Kalhor on kamancheh and Wu Man on the Chinese pipa, augmented by trumpet, strings and some subtle synths with vocals from Venezuela’s Biella da Costa, the Dutch soprano Nora Fischer and Chinese singer Wu Tong. The results are sombre, intense, at times harrowing – and always profoundly moving. Golijov won the Grammy for best contemporary classic composition in 2007 and it would be no surprise if he were to win again for this extraordinary recording. In other news, since this recording was made Rhiannon Giddens has been appointed Silkroad’s artistic director and it will be fascinating to see where she next leads them.