Tales of Earth and Sun

The Iranian group Rastak have been going for over 25 years, although in recent years they’ve relocated from Iran to Istanbul. They say their aim is to “interpret Iranian folk music for a global audience” and with a seven-piece ensemble including plucked tar, setar, electric oud and qanun, bowed kamancheh and percussion it’s a compelling sound world. The six tracks on this album come from different regions of Iran plus one from Afghanistan, which shares the Farsi language. It opens with ‘Havar Havar’ which combines several melodies from the south of the country on the Persian Gulf. They do a similar thing with ‘Dora Dora’ featuring melodies from Lorestan, with some nice kamancheh solos, an instrument particularly featured in the region. They describe ‘Aman Hey Aman’ as a “narrative of their artistic journey from past to present”, featuring Kurdish tunes, the plucked tanbur and driving frame drum. ‘Halo Halo’ is a tribute to the people of Balochistan in the east. The Afghan track is the popular ‘Zim Zim’ by Ahmad Zahir, the ‘Afghan Elvis’. Their final song ‘Azadi’ (Freedom) is also rooted in Kurdish music with a strong rhythmic thrust and evokes other recent songs in Iran and Afghanistan – like Shervin Hajipour’s ‘Baraye’, written after the death of Mahsa Amini, and Elaha Soroor’s ‘Naan, Kar, Azadi’ (Bread, Work, Freedom) – calling for women’s rights.