La Silencieuse

Meïkhâneh comprise singer Maria Laurent, Johanni Curtet on guitar and overtone singing, and Milad Pasta on Iranian percussion. Recording at Chantier's Centre for the Creation of New Traditional Music and World Music, they were joined by three guest players, who added various lutes, Mongolian horse-head double bass, and the diatonic accordion.
The group's name means ‘House of Intoxication’ in Persian, and Meïkhâneh specialise in making music beyond borders. Drawing their improvisations and inspirations from the folk music of Europe, Mongolia and Iran, theirs is a moveable feast of disparate musics and traditions that finds areas of familiarity and correspondence in each other. The opening song, ‘Silencia’, was inspired by a painting of a woman cutting her voluminous black hair, and is sung in an imaginary language. ‘Talyn Thème' is in Persian, with the horse-head double bass stirring and rumbling beneath the more delicate percussion and guitar lines. ‘Eszmélet' is in Hungarian, while ‘Uulyn Nulims’ is in Mongolian and features some spectacular overtone singing. In fact, there's a wide variety of tone and feel throughout, a rich musical journey with a soul of its own.