One With the Beloved

Oh dear. On paper, Shervin Boloorian ticks the right boxes. He's a refugee from Iran, raised in the UK, with an interest in the spiritual poetry of Rumi and Sufi mysticism. But musically, this is one of the most bland, long-winded and tedious recordings I've heard in a long time. Boloorian sings Rumi's poetry and various Islamic mantras over soft guitar chords, keyboards and some electronics. At its most exciting, on the track ‘Bismillah’ (In the Name of God), we get some water sounds, a kora and something distantly inspired by a Sufi zikr – rhythmic chanting of the name of God. But whereas the real thing is raw, rhythmic and vigorous, this is limp and drenched in artificial reverb.

Boloorian is based in Bali, where he provides holistic sound therapy. This sounds like New Age music for the beach, but not for music lovers. Bismillah! Just let it go!