Overtones

It's perhaps a measure of the subtlety of the music that the liner notes to this new addition to Harmonia Mundi's Latitudes series should be pure, unadulterated waffle from start to finish. But it's still a shame that its writer did not even try to explain what the many instruments heard here actually are. The matouqin is a cousin of the morin huur (horsehead fiddle); the guimbarde is French for the Jew's harp; the hulusi is a triple-pipe flute; but as for the others, Google doesn’t help. We hear the drum-like plucking of a large string instrument at one point, plus a small metal percussion instrument, plus an instrument sounding like a tenor sax. But all we can do is surmise.

No matter: just listen. The Jew's harp is used with remarkable virtuosity, extracting harmonics which create melody in themselves; the matouqin is played with lovely expressiveness. Drone effects, sometimes evoking the sound of the Armenian duduk are frequent. Using silence as much as sound, these players build up their effects very deliberately, savouring the timbre of every note, the texture of every juxtaposition.