COMPOSERS: Mad Sheer Khan
LABELS: Erato Detour
PERFORMER: Mad Sheer Khan
CATALOGUE NO: 3984-27319-2
MAD SHEER KHAN’s absorbing concept album started from the Arabian Nights in contemporary translation and led to the idea of using guest women singers from around the world. Lyrics focus on love and separation, exile and engagement.
Each ‘night’ ends with an evocative instrumental ‘sunrise’ for the country in question, a sort of intercultural tone poem. Playing guests include Indian violinist L Subramaniam. Starting in Algeria, it all sounds at home with its additional instrumentation, though those strings aren’t so local (they are the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra).
Then we move on to Mamani Keita’s Gnawa night, incisive but swamped by violins, and visit North America, India and Tibet before ending in Iran.