Same Self, Same Silence

‘Same, same, but different,’ as they like to say in Thailand. The Rembrandt Frerichs Trio released a magnificent album with Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor last year. But I think this new one with Hossein Alizadeh is even better – largely because there’s more variety across the nine tracks. Alizadeh plays a shurangiz, a Persian lute that is a mellow cross between a tar and setar with three double strings. The remarkable Dutch trio play a kind of jazz on early music instruments, namely a 1790 Mozart-style fortepiano, a bass viol and a purpose-built ‘whisperkit’ with percussion instruments from all over the world, created by Vinsent Planjer. They all have a love of Persian music and the magic is the sounds of the instruments blending so well together – Rembrandt Frerichs notes how the fortepiano resembles the sound of the Iranian santur (hammered dulcimer) – and the minds of the instrumentalists are so well in tune.

Exploring the mode of Nava, it starts slow featuring all four musicians, full of contrasting textures. The subtle percussion is superb throughout, with ‘Neyshaburak’ being a sublime duet of shurangiz and percussion. Largely reflective, the piece builds to the final two tracks, ‘Nahoft’ and ‘Torkeman’, where the melody occasionally finds overtones of the famous slow theme of Rodrigo’s guitar concerto. The whole album is a masterpiece of sensitive and luminous improvisation.