The Great Blue Wheel

Bergen-based but worldly in concept, Meelodi is the brain-child of Norwegian Ole Andre Farstad and Iranian Medi Farmani. On this, their third album, Farstad’s broad guitar influences and working knowledge of string instruments from around the world meets with Farmani’s interpretations of Persian poetry in a truly international collaboration, augmented by other musicians from Syria, the UK, Senegal and Canada to name just a few. This is ‘world music’ without pretension: a beautiful melding of sounds achieved with cultural sensitivity and finesse. And it doesn’t try to ram home any vague message about universal oneness; it is simply just very good. Farstad’s guitar works so well with Kadialy Kouyate’s kora, echoing the collaborations of the greats Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté; though here these instruments’ roles are predominantly as riff-providers – giving way to Farmani’s strong vocal lead while occasionally surfacing with counter-melody. Drum kit would be incongruous in this context so, instead, subtle percussion underpins the arrangements that also feature the characteristic buzz of the nyatiti (Kenyan lyre), Indian slide guitar, banjo, ngoni, guzheng (Chinese zither) oud, sax and more. This mix is heady but perfectly balanced.