Shalhevet

Divahn are a five-piece female group based in New York. The name comes from Persian divan or diwan, which has also been adopted into Arabic and Turkish, referring to a group of poems. As with Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the aim of Divahn is to show the commonality of traditions between Jews, Persians and Arabs in the region.

The band's leader and vocalist is Galeet Dardashti, US-born from a Persian Jewish background. Around her are a skilled group of instrumentalists, particularly Megan Gould on violin and kamancheh, plus others on cello and percussion. The instrumental track ‘Khazan’ is one of the most compelling. Dardashti has a tendency to over-dramatise, which gets tiring, even irritating, on the opening ‘Ya'alah Ya'alah’. The subsequent ‘Oseh Shalom’ is much more listenable with more lyricism and less hectoring.

The lyrics are mostly in Hebrew, with only occasional verses in Arabic and Persian, although the melodies are mainly Arabic and Kurdish. More diversification of languages would have helped the message, but there's an admirable intent here to use traditional music to address current realities. This is particularly true in ‘Banu Choshech’, a response with Middle Eastern quarter tones to the US closing its borders to immigrants from Middle Eastern, African and Latin American countries.