From Night to the Edge of Day

The birth of her first child inspired the Iranian-born Canadian resident Azam Ali to record an album of lullabies as her follow-up to 2006's Elysium For The Brave [reviewed in #41]. If that conjures up in your mind sentimental cootchie-cooings that should never be allowed out of the nursery, think again. Clearly in the Middle East and in the Islamic world, cradle songs are cut from a more serious musical cloth. For this is an album of richly dreamy, lush, soft, sad, contemplative textures in which Ali's evocative voice is underpinned by a gorgeous soundbed of traditional oud (lute) and strings.

Though the album had its origins in the songs which Ali sang to her son, the project swiftly grew, as she was sent lullabies from around the Middle East, many of them from minority communities, such as the Iraqi Kurds, the Azeris of Iran. Other songs came from Turkey and Palestine. As Ali refashioned them, they became more than simply soothing sounds to send a child to sleep. As she sang they became her personal but highly political message to the next generation to put an end to the strife and inter-ethnic conflict that blights the region. And although the subtext is one of oppression, war, and exile, Ali's voice carries within it the warm sound of hope that a future generation will have a more enlightened view that will allow them to live in peaceful co-existence. Standout tracks include the Turkish songs ‘Dandini’ and ‘Neni Desem’, the lovely Kurdish melody ‘Lai Lai’, Ali's own haunting composition ‘Tenderness’ and ‘Faith’, especially written for her son by the Palestinian oud player Naser Musa. A very special album indeed.