Crafted, outward-bound experiments in the improvisatory forms, modes, drones and rhythms of Iranian music, by guitarist Golfam Khayam and clarinetist Mona Matbou Riahi, both born in Teheran.

‘Heartbreaking clarity and economy of expression… to the accompaniment of pianist Iyer’s wistful melodic fragments and pregnant clusters. Smith can project a tender fragility through a single lingering note, reminiscent of Miles at his most thoughtful and noirish circa Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud’ (The Wire).

The guitarist’s guitarist in duos with master drummers Paul Motian and Andrew Cyrille, in a trio with Cyrille and Pete Rende (playing synthesizer), and solo. ‘A master of texture and unusual voicings, creating what one reviewer has called ‘detailed sonic landscapes of mystery and power’.’ All Monder originals, except Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.

Iain Ballamy and Thomas Strønen, joined by Christian Fennesz. ‘Powerful grooves, evocative textures and exploratory improvisation, sometimes hypnotically insistent, sometimes turbulent.’
‘Heavier, drier, connecting more with how we actually sound live,’ says Strønen.

‘Music, its forms and rituals, has the power to bring us close to distant civilizations. Armenia offers a special case: a sacred culture that was preserved and presented at its fullest flowering through the work of one man, the scholar-monk Soghomon Soghomonian, known under his religious name as Komitas.’
Duduk, blul, santur, tar, saz, dap, kamancha, kanon, oud…

Armenian sacred music from the fifth to nineteenth centuries — chants, hymns and sharakans — in settings for choir and piano.
‘Extraordinarily beautiful… Hamasyan uses the characteristic, Eastern-hued Armenian modes to summon up an ancient world. It’s very different to Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble’s million-selling Officium, but if you like that, you’ll love this’ (The Independent).