Music of Central Asia Vol Eight: Rainbow

This clearly shows the Music of Central Asia discs moving in a different direction – away from purely traditional music to something new and creative. Kronos Quartet included a track with Alim and Fargana Qasimov as the centrepiece of their last album Floodplain (a TOTW in #61). They've taken that idea much further here, with arrangements of five Azeri songs performed by Alim and Fargana and what amounts to a concerto for Afghan rubab and string quartet by Homayun Sakhi. Called ‘Rangin Kaman’ (Rainbow), the 29-minute piece is satisfyingly structured with an arresting opening for Kronos before the evocative first entry of the rubab with a glissando on its sympathetic strings, preceding the bold opening melody. The piece basically has a two-part structure, slow and then fast, with strong melodies and some spectacular percussion on tabla, doyra (frame drum) and qayraq (clappers).

Alim Qasimov is, of course, a major star in his own right, with a high-pitched, powerful voice. In his songs, the string-quartet players are very integrated with Qasimov's ensemble of balaban (duduk), kamancha (spike fiddle), tar (lute) and naghara (cylindrical hand drum). Qasimov has said that ‘to be a musician there has to be a fire burning within you’ and that is certainly audible on ‘Köhlen Atim’ (My Spirited Horse) and ‘Leyla’ which ends in a dramatic crescendo and a full-bloodied shriek. A magnificent achievement and a successful collaboration rightly documented on the accompanying DVD.