Ivresses

Iranian singer Alireza Ghorbani and Tunisian singer Dorsaf Hamdani here have teamed up for a celebration of the poetry of the renowned 11th century Persian Omar Khayyam, famous for his Rubayyat – brief poems dedicated to spiritual love. Frowned upon by the more puritanical – Khayyam drew from images of physical love and the drinking of wine – in most of the Middle East he is still venerated, and his poetry has a considerable following in the West.

The poems are sung in Persian and Arabic and the music is based on Persian and Arabic traditions. Although akin to each other, these traditions have differences in tuning, scales, vocal technique and instrumentation, and the two do not very often meet each other. Any latent discordances are brilliantly bridged by composer and tar (long-necked lute) player Ali Ghamsary, via a range of musical inventions in the composition and the instrumentation, scored for an ensemble of first-class musicians. Another innovative aspect is the blend of male and female singers, something not permitted in Ghorbani's home country. It's appropriate though: as the liner notes state, Khayyam ‘wrote his quatrains also to resist the narrowness of the spirit and the morality of his epoch.’ Hamdani's skilled voice matches Ghorbani's in terms of power but, of course, differs in its distinct Arabic style.

The track ‘Enivrement’ (Inebriation) is an epic showcase of the pair's talents. Over six minutes, it builds up from a gentle opening on the tar to culminate in a frantic improvisation between percussion and kemençe, and concluding with a spine-chilling solo chant by Ghorbani elaborating on Khayyam's verse lines.