Product Description

This gorgeous improvisational collaboration between Persiankamacheh player Kayhan Kalhor and North Indian sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan was rightly hailed as the finest world music release of 1998. AS NIGHT FALLS ON THE SILK ROAD is shot through with aching melodicism, virtuosic musicianship, and afierce, carefully focused passion rarely heard from any corner of the globe. Kalhor's kamancheh (a four-stringed, upright Iranian ancestor of most European and Asian bowed instruments) merges seamlessly with Khan's sitar and understated vocals to create rich, protean, highly evocative soundscapes at once spacious and infinitely dense.
Swapan Chaudhuri, one of the greatest living masters of the tabla, supports Kalhor and Khan. Chaudhuri propels the duo's playing with his sensitive, bogglingly complex hand-drum accompaniment. By turns peaceful, tender, and feverishly energetic, the musical conversations that evolve here take the already profoundly spiritual tradition of Indian music to new heights of invention and greater depths of meditative meaning. This beautiful recording is an essential addition to any world music collection.

Track Listing

1. My Eyes My Heart
2. Between Dawn And Dawn A New Truth
3. Snowy Mountains
4. Traces Of The Beloved

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88700 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1

From Amazon.com
This is the second release to feature the exceptional collaboration between Persian and Indian musical masters and it is every bit as good. Kayhan Kalhor is a consummate player of the kamancheh (Persian spike fiddle). In Kalhor's hands this instrument has a range of expression from gentle melancholy to fiery passion. Shujaat Hussain Khan is the masterful sitarist of this musical meeting. His pure tone and technique create watery cascades of notes, and at other times, eruptions of bright sparks of sound. Swapan Chaudhuri, tabla virtuoso, provides the rhythmic foundation and deft percussive ornamentation. The four long pieces on this title are rich treasure troves of classical technique and dazzling improvisation. The marvelous interplay between the bowed kamancheh, the plucked sitar, the struck tabla, and the warm vocals, exemplify not only the meeting of the remarkable minds of the musicians, but also the joining of two rich musical traditions finding harmonious common ground. --Jeff Grubb

Customer Reviews

Harmony, Unity, Divinity
Ghazal has produced a timeless combination of music that is like
vipassana meditation, recognizing the divinity in all of life. The sitar, kamanche and tabla are for the most part the only instruments. As the mind listens to each instrument, interplay, and create harmonies, an ecstatasy of enchantment arises and creates waves of bliss ... this bliss lasts for hours after listening. If opening your chakras means anything to you, this CD will do it: your heart will expand wider & wider into a state of love for *ALL* of life. You will realize existence is precious. "Snowy Mountain" is my favorite. The music resonates with my very being and makes me very happy. This music is similar to Sufi mediatation music --- it is probably the closest thing to a mystical experience some of us will ever have! Don't hesitate ... BUY IT!
Erika Borsos (bakonyvilla)

A Treasure from the East!
Kayhan Kalhor & Shujaat Husain Khan have put together one of the most mystical and enticing compilations of two eastern styles of music that I have ever heard. The haunting air of the Iranian Kamancheh and the ever melodious Indian Sitar combined with the syncopated rhythm of the Indian Tabla and Shujaat Husain Khan's vocals make for an excellent CD. Every track is worthwhile and will keep you compelled to continue to listen as the trance like feeling of the music brings you visions of Ancient Arabia and Indian.

If you've never heard these two types of music before or are simply interested in exploring them, then this is an excellent place to start. If you are already familiar with this style of music and are looking to add to your collection, then this is defintely a gem to add to your treasure trove.