Spring

The joy in making music within the mystic branch of Islam known as Sufism, and the verses of the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, are celebrated throughout these ten tracks, performed by the Iranian-born vocalist and poet Katayoun Goudarzi and sitar virtuoso Shujaat Husain Khan, whose North Indian classical pedigree dates back seven generations. The musical and cultural ties between their two regions date back to Rumi's era, but Goudarzi and Khan are emphatic that this album is a spontaneous interaction between two contemporary artists, and that their music here is not defined by the strictures of any tradition, or classifiable within a secular genre. Instead, we hear the results of Goudarzi having explored some of her favourite texts with Khan, who generated a remarkable variety of melodies to elicit the themes voiced by Goudarzi (in Farsi), treating love in both sacred and sensual forms. Although the music may inevitably evoke the intricate art of raga or the exaltation of ghazal at times, the listener is brought in on a different and exciting experiment, heralded by the seductively sensuous alto speaking voice of Goudarzi. At times she's plaintive, at times pleading, but always tonally luscious, and thus well-matched with Khan's playing and with his own mellow low-tenor singing voice. The pair are nicely supported by the blissfulness of Ajay Prasanna's bansuri flute and the burbling pulse of Abhiman Kaushal's tabla. Even if you don't understand Farsi, you'll find Rumi reaching you.