Noor-e Vojood

Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian is 23 years old, but his music resounds with a sense of ancient mystery. It’s unsurprising given the path he’s taken. He was born in Kermanshah, western Iran, which, for more than 5,000 years, has been home of the pear-shaped lute known as the tanbur. Heydarian’s father is a percussionist and tanbur maker, and Heydarian, as a young student of the tanbur, began learning the thousand-year-old maqams of the mystic Yarsan sect aged just seven. His second album extends the mission embarked upon with his debut, Songs of Horaman, a few years ago, presenting a suite of half a dozen original compositions written and performed in the traditional style. Themes uncoil slowly from the tanbur’s brittle timbre, strings strummed boldly, with a persistent sympathetic buzz underlying. On two tracks the dohool cylinder drum adds an implacable beat like a cavernous tabla. It’s music to get lost in.