| A huge leap in concept
for Baghiri. This is by far my favorite thing i have ever heard from him. Apparently during excursions to Africa and the Middle East, Baghiri recorded sessions with primitive and professional ethinic musicians in those regions as well as just location recordings of deserts and environments. Mixing this in with Baghiri's normally very clean, beautiful ambient esthetic, we come out with incredible visions of primitive, ethnic, ritualist ambient-intrumental. Part Steve Roach, part Bill Laswell "Jajouka" sessions. You can feel the dark lights around the village as musicians propel their rhythms into otherworldy trace-states. Vibrant walls of energy climb and descend in an organic-electronic flow. varied tracks contain varied sentiments and style. Each track is unique in structure as well as style. Rarely does any piece seem to inform another. They are all so exact yet so singualr. Several credible records could have been created from thematerial here, an ambient, an instrumental, and an experimental. Instead we get a rich, multi-layered work that stays remarkable and telling after a dozen (or more) plays. Very nice. www.manifoldrecords.com |
||
| Desert ambience and field
recordings culled by Amir Baghiri on a Sony DAT station
in various Asian and North African locales. Baghiri has a
fine line of ambient recordings in his catalogue, both as
a solo artist and collaborator - the finest of all
perhaps being Arcanum with Mattias Grassow and Rüdiger
Gleisberg. Desert ambience and field recordings culled
by Amir Baghiri on a Sony DAT station in various Asian
and North African locales. Baghiri has a fine line of
ambient recordings in his catalogue, both as a solo
artist and collaborator - the finest of all perhaps being
Arcanum with Mattias Grassow and Rüdiger Gleisberg.
On Yalda, Baghiri plays a dozen Near Eastern percussion
instruments, ouds and digeridoos, clay flutes, Iranian
neys, Tibetan Gongs and "some other forgotten
objects". A trio of guests artists also contribute
to the mix, a heady, rhythmic evocation of life in quiet
contemplation or desperate isolation - at times, it´s
hard to know which. Electronics and natural sounds are
employed with tasteful parsimony. Some nice discreet
touches, like the quiet, tinkling coda as "Ice, Fire
and Bone", an otherwise manic percussion track,
fades out. As a whole, Yalda seems to progress from
entirely beat-oriented to increasing abstraction until it
fades quietly away.... Stephen Fruitman sonomu |
||
| AN INCREDIBLY WIDE RANGE
OF AFRICAN / MIDDLE EASTERN / ASIAN INSTRUMENTATION HAS
BEEN USED ON THIS HIGHLY MUSICAL AND VIBRANT CD. A LOVELY
TOUCH IS THE ADDITION OF "EASTERN DESERT AMBIENCE
AND NATURE ATMOS" INTO THE MIX. REALLY GOOD STUFF. smallfish |
||
| a fabulous album from
amir baghiri displaying a captivating virtuosity on a wide range of african, middle eastern and asian percussion instruments. ambience comes from the field recordings and found sounds, and everything's subtly processed to create a rich, exotic soundtrack that recalls old school masters like zakir hussain as well as the 'fourth world' musics of sun city girls, muslimgauze or jon hassell. on vivo. rough trade |
||
| Profuma di spezie e
luoghi lontani e fin dai primissimi secondi dichiara i suoi intenti: ti circonda con percussioni, con suoni naturali, ma processati e mandati in loop del tutto innaturali. Ti fa muovere, addirittura ballare...poi ti abbandona in una caverna sotterranea. Amir Baghiri si manifesta come un'entita' capace di affollare incredibilmente lo spazio attorno a chi ascolta, avvolgendo tra le spire, tessendo trame ritmiche (ma anche melodiche) di incredibile bellezza e ricchezza, usando proprio quei colori tipici di quell'Oriente da cui proviene. Piu' che 10 tracce, questo cd contiene un viaggio spazio-temporale.Si ricollega alle origini sciamaniche della musica orientale, per ricreare un qualcosa di assolutamente contemporaneo. Dove dubak, zarb, bendir, gong e un vastissimo set di percussioni tradizionali iraniane, si amalgama con pattern ritmici elettronici, voci dalle profondita' marine, flauti talmente gonfi di riverbero da sembrare synth e (citando le sue stesse note) additive, fm and analogue synthesizers, processors & subliminal nature sound programming & multidimensional ambient creations. Ricorda, seppure con riferimenti geografici e culturali altri, i lavori piu' ritmici di Steve Roach. Geniale! Pura trance. Costruita con strumenti reali e ritmi tutt'altro che binari. Insomma, chi l'ha detto che l'elettronica debba avere la cassa in battere? kaoskulture |
||
| Dawno nie słyszałem tak
porywającej i czadowej płyty jak "Yalda".
Muzyka zamieszkałego na stałe w Niemczech Amira Baghiri
- Persa z pochodzenia - czerpie z bogatej tradycji
bliskowschodniej muzyki perkusyjnej, uzupełnionej o
pochodzące z terenów Azji i Afryki nagrania z odgłosami
otoczenia oraz o dyskretne wstawki ambitnej elektroniki.
Wypadkową takich zabiegów jest etno XXI wieku, wciągające
w wir pierwotnych rytmów i brzmiące bardzo nowocześnie
właśnie dzięki tym dodatkom. W dodatku z Amirem nie ma
żartów, gdyż jest on multiinstrumentalistą ocalającym
od zapomnienia prastare instrumenty ludowe z różnych
stron świata, a nade wszystko wirtuozem gry na
wszelakich perkusjonaliach służących podtrzymaniu
rytmu. A ten jest po prostu zjawiskiem samym w sobie,
porywającym do dzikiego i pierwotnego tańca i
mentalnego zatracenia. Zgodnie z zupełnie odmienną od
europejskiej tradycją kulturową, utwory pozbawione są
linii melodycznej, a ich kompozycja opiera się na gęstej
strukturze rytmiczno-przestrzennej. Pomiędzy momentami
szalonej jazdy z prędkością, która grozi połamaniem
rąk niewprawnemu bębniarzowi, rozciągają się kojące
nasze nerwy połacie dźwięków otoczenia i stonowanych
ambientowych pejzaży. Według mnie tak właśnie powinna
wyglądać mentalna podróż na pierwotny Bliski Wschód,
odbywana za pomocą uszu. "Yalda" od początku
do końca zadziwia swoim hipnotycznym klimatem, a jej
warstwę brzmieniową określić można jako dość surową
i "suchą". Jest ona pozbawiona plastycznego
ciepła, a jednak gładka i klarowna, dzięki czemu z gęstej
faktury muzyki uważnemu słuchaczowi nie umyka żaden
szczegół. Większość utworów jest płynnie połączona
ze sobą, dzięki czemu mamy niezakłóconą okazję do
obcowania z pierwotnym transem. Trzy ostatnie kompozycje
wyhamowują natomiast impet całego albumu, przygotowując
słuchacza na zasłużony odpoczynek. Uff, co za dzień! Radosław Pasternak / Hi-Fi i Muzyka www.hi-fi.com.pl/ |
||
| Amir Baghiri is one of
the more prolific ambient artists in the genre. With over
twenty-eight solo records and countless collaborations
and film scores, one would expect the quantity to win out
over the quality. Wrong. Baghiri has avoided monotony by
delving into the many facets of the genre, from abstract,
noise, minimal, experimental, dark and tribal ambient.
His newest solo record, Yalda, fits predominantly
into the last category. It is a haunting and pounding
concept record based on the eastern desert and a
regenerative winter solstice celebration. His previous solo record was also based on a concept--that of dreams, and the aiding of them by sound. It was appropriately titled Dreamresources. Yalda, like much of Baghiri's work, is firmly rooted in the modern aesthetic of the reinterpretation of old. Baghiri manipulates the middle-eastern drumming to fit his own schema of experimentation. The record jumps from ambient-laced found sounds (all recorded live in the desert with Baghir's DAT) to throbbing tribal beats without warning, which keeps the record from becoming simple background noise. The album opens with the stunning "Daygan." The sound of crickets (which pervades the entire record) and other live recorded ambiance from the eastern desert is slowly overtaken by the pounding tribal drums. A barking animal enters the mix, barely audible beneath the layers of syncopated drums. Howling voices dot the landscape and the drums increase in intensity. You can picture the barren landscape with the full moon dripping light overhead. The drums slowly fade away and then stop altogether, with only a silent ambiance leading into the second song. With no clear lines drawn between each song, and with the record pushing past the hour long mark, it can get draining around the forty-five minute mark, but the last two tracks ("Hidden Psalm" and "Languages of Animals") are a sweet reward to the listener for making it through that far. The list of instruments used in the recording is astonishing in length. They range from didjeridus, rainsticks and "other forgotten objects," to Tibetan gongs, panjab clay flutes, bendirs and other esoteric eastern instruments. At the bottom of the list are the electronics used: fm and analogue synths, and processors and subliminal nature sound programming. The dichotomy seems strange, but the end result is stunning in its near prefect amalgamation. The electronics used are subtle enough that the prosaic listener may not notice them altogether, and the ambiance is underwhelming enough as to not lose the listener. The record was released by the Polish label, Vivo, which is appropriate because the label also recently released the new posthumous record by fellow purveyor of eastern rhythm, Muslimgauze. But where Muslimgauze uses his music as an output for political purposes, Baghiri seems less interested in the social and political aspects of the region, but more on the history and landscape, which is evident in the beautiful digipac design and artwork. Yalda is the best introduction to Baghiri's work, seamlessly combining the best elements of his wide-ranging genre hopping, all the while holding the attention of the listener with a wide array of sounds and tribal beats that those afraid of straight ambiance will wholeheartedly embrace. It is a record that successfully accomplishes the moods of darkness, rebirth, and beautiful isolation that Baghiri seems to have been aiming for. It is eastern ambient electronica at its best. Gentry Boeckel / Stylus |
||
| After an
uncharacteristically long wait, we're presented with the
latest work from this Iranian ambient artist. When this
latest album arrived I wondered I would be presented
with, more stratospheric synths, a world of dreams or a
dynamic range of hard-edged instrumental experimentation.
What we're presented with goes back closer to home for
Amir with sounds of the ethnic middle-eastern desert. With tracks ranging from five to ten minutes in length, they blend excellently one with the other, so you really are not aware of when one magical soundscape ends and the other begins. "daygan" begins this journey with slowly building percussion that builds and builds and includes incredible beats that would put many drum circles to shame. And on it continues through various tracks picking up and dropping off, including sounds of the desert, nature, the rare commodity of the relaxing sound of running water and so on through the ambient textures of "simourgh" and "languages of animals". The inclusion of a plethora of instruments such as egyptian dumbak, liquid drums, bendirs, azerbaijan, frame drum, surdo, tamborin, tibetan gongs, panjab clay flute, stone flute, synthesizers and many others are a true dynamic to this album. Many friends also contribute their talents making this the ultimate jam session CD. It's relaxing in many ways, and monotonous enough to bring that trancy ambient feeling to life, yet not too much as to make you grow tired of listening. But you do have to appreciate this type of ambient music and soundscapes. I think this is another great step and album for Amir Baghiri bringing us yet another surreal world that we could only capture through music. copyright 2004 -Jacob Bogedahl / Gothic Paradise |
||
| Amir Baghiri has been
composing music since his university days in the early '80s.
More recently he is based in Germany where he produces
solo, collaborative and commercial work in his Bluebox
studio. Previous discs have been contained within the
borders of his native Iran or been released by Spanish
and Italian labels but Yalda is his debut for Poland's
Vivo. From the title, a winter solstice celebration
meaning "birth," to the arid landscape imagery
of the ecopack's artwork, to the dedication to 9th-10th
Century Iranian physician-cum-renaissance man Zakariya
Razi, to the nearly ridiculous list of ethnic instruments
used, Yalda is steeped in ancient Persian culture.
Baghiri conjures an immersive sound world melding
percussion and programming with true Asian and North
African ambience collected in person on DAT. The opening
tracks immediately set the scene: trance inducing poly-rhythmic
drumming, a backdrop of simmering electronics and
atmospheres, an enigmatic animal howl, etc. Sand is
practically spilling out of the speakers. Then the rhythm
dies down and the dark ambient drifts, drones and
dripping water become the foreground. And so it goes for
68 minutes, fluctuating through these aggressive and
sublime moments. In some tracks, such as "Ice, Fire
and Bone" and "Hidden Psalm," the
percussion is content to gently percolate while in
others, such as "Cross-Dressing," it rolls in
like an invading army and reaches a fever pitch. I can't
offer much of an informed opinion on the authenticity of
it all, but to these Western ears it's all wonderful:
somewhere between Steve Roach and Muslimgauze.
Recommended to fans of both and the like. Brainwashed / Mark Weddle |
||
| A selection of 10
impeccable tribal/ambient/textural tracks here from this
prolific Iranian artist. 'Yalda' charts a course for the
faraway lands as Baghiri uses DAT source material from
his visits to Asia and North Africa. Incorporating these
field recordings into 'Yalda' lends the atmospheres a
natural, earthy vibe--very successful indeed. Fans of the
somber, moody soundscapes of Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana,
Steve Roach, or even Bill Laswell would do well to seek
out this marvelous release. Godsend / Todd Zachritz |
||
| Wie man
sich vorstellen kann eine CD die voller arabischer
Instrumente steckt und damit nahezu sicher stellenweise
sehr percussiv ist, auf der anderen Seite aber auch
ebenso dicht und ambient digital. Beats aus Wasserplätschern,
die dennoch nicht blöd sind, stehende Sounds die nach Wüste
klingen, Hitze, Ruhe die ständig umgewälzt wird von den
großen Gesten der Natur. Wie es sein kann, dass so eine
Platte auf einem polnischen Label erscheint, ist schon an
sich ein kleines Wunder. Wer sich gelegentlich etwas
fiebrig fühlt, Musik wie eine Masse aus heißem Wind
liebt, sollte sich diese CD anhören. bleed .... De:Bug |
||
| Barking beasts are the
beats along with some fine tribal drumming on 'Daygan', the opening track of 'Yalda'. Once again Amir Baghiri has chronicled a lush wilderness, a place where fear and warmth coexist. Field recordings from Asia and North Africa include lively howls, morning rain and sounds of industry. The title track makes eerie references to lost tribes, the ghosts of forgone civilizations. The sound is cinemascope-wide following curvaceous dunes with an open air atmosphere. The recording has a pristine production that focuses on the elements, especially water in many forms. 'Illanout' is the morning after a sobbing storm, that picks up with lively African rhythms and ample beats. There is a natural sound here, it is less an electronic record - more of an emergence for Baghiri where field recordings and nodes/wires meet and meld. This makes a fine case for what 'world music' should be. 'Cross-Dressing' starts silently and builds furiously into a snake-charmed whirl of dust and rattle. The percussion is truly evocative of some supreme tonal language that is a complete body hypnotism, and then it suddenly falls silent and changes the pace. Over and over Baghiri plays this mystical dance with our ears, tracks with beginnings, climaxes and sudden or slow endings as heard again on 'Azar'. None of the tracks here copycat each other though his formula is repetitive, albeit an alluring one, in a way that keeps you wanting more. (TJN) Vital Weekly |
||
| Amir Baghiri is
an Iranian multi-instrumentalist who plays an amazing
variety of ethnic instruments. Recorded in Asia and North
Africa, I began to wonder why this World Music offering
was being marketed as "desert ambience".
Europeans may rate it as ambient music, but, I thought,
North Africans probably just regard it as music. OK, I've
been had... A search of the Web reveals that Amir Baghiri is a prolific and successful "electro-tribal sound designer" based in Germany. So what we have here is a musician/composer/programmer with one foot in organic, acoustic music, and the other in hi-tech manipulation. Baghiri knows what he's doing and the result - undoubtedly more than the sum of the parts - is a sort of hyper-real version of World Music, finer and more mysterious and more everything than the real thing. Given my limited experience of this area, I'm tempted to compare this with Muslimgauze, but without the political agenda. The music here is fundamentally and overwhelmingly percussive, with mostly just the feint suggestion of other sounds, and even where a melodic instrument puts in an appearance, the melody is little more than a riff and its role is completely secondary. The sound draws its interest from its rhythmical complexity and the varying timbres which different 'substances' produce. Drumming at festivals, in parks and by buskers has become a popular activity, so Europeans are much more open to purely percussive music than the charts might suggest. This is ethno-ambient rather than dark-ambient, but at least it's not New Age mush-ambient. RIK - 29 August 2003 FluxEuropa |
||
Amir Baghiri is a 40-year-old Iranian who has been living in Germany during more recent years. He has been prolifically recording since the '80s, with numerous releases on the Italian Amplexus imprint (including several CD box sets), soundtrack work and a number of probably impossible-to-find vinyl and cassette releases from his home country behind him. How Yalda compares to this expansive body of work I honestly don't know, since this is the first time I've heard anything by Baghiri, but what's interesting is the way he and his few (mostly) Persian collaborators successfully blend peregrinatory washes of pulped computer processes and field recordings with a vast armoury of traditional instruments several worlds away from those many Western peers attempting to evoke a 'similar' atmosphere purely via their sample collections. There's an extremely rich and natural flow to the proceedings suggesting nothing less than live instruments at work, and it's precisely here that the vast difference is compounded. Although almost everything is played by Baghiri himself, the bottom line is that the combination of shakers, gongs, frame drums, bendirs, rababa, chimes, zarb, stone flute and so on actually exist beyond the clutches of the virtual environment. Held down by some fantastic and often labyrinthine hypnotic rhythms, other snatches of less discernible sound drift steadily through a haze of electronics and background chants. It does little to betray the expansive images of the desert, and its many mysteries, both suggested immediately and indeed depicted on the sleeve (where, in keeping with the spirit of the music, photographs are digitally tampered with slightly). In keeping with so much music of this kind, there's a filmic afterglow that, again, in lesser hands would only sound clumsy or benign. Baghiri's own grasp, however, never strays from a purer form of craft, simultaneously singular and porous while encapsulating the beauty, menace and ever-changing temperament of the very same lands that have inspired him. In a nutshell, it's a widescreen grasp primed perfectly for widescreen minds. Who can ask for much more than that? (RJ) Adverse Effect (UK) |
||
| Amir Baghiri
has stepped away from his keyboards and embarked on a
field trip across the sands of the Middle East. Utilizing
more regional and ethnic instruments than I knew even
existed, he builds a record which, while still ambient in
construction, overflows with the sound of wind and drums.
There's a certain Muslimgauze-like flavor to Yalda (only
because rhythmic trance influenced by the Middle East was
so completely the core of Bryn Jones' sound), but Baghiri
polishes the music with his own sensibilities and
impressions. While "Yalda" is filled with persistent drums, there is also a heavy wind which blows through this track, carrying it with a lone voice and a variety of other wind-driven instruments. It is like a Muslimgauze beat over a vidnaObmana or Robert Rich atmosphere -- a thick, heady arrangement of textured space which both floats and sizzles. There are aspects of the early Muslimgauze sound throughout the entirety of Yalda, sounds and textures reminiscent of both Azzazzin and the Gun Aramaic discs, but these elements are only points of comparison if you know them; Baghiri's use of these textures and sonic atmospheres are his own coloration, his own emphasis on ambience. "Illanout" begins with the rare rain which dots the Sahara, a momentary respite from the heat, and, as the rain passes, the sun heats the sand again, raising heat waves which shimmer and dance across the dunes. Baghiri captures it all and the illusory veils of sound are left hanging in space, draped across the sky. The ambience of the desert at night is the backdrop for "Ice, Fire, and Bone" as a solitary drummer sits at the edge of the firelight and composes a finger-burning duet with the night insects. "Simourgh" is spooky in its ambience, as if you have stumbled upon an old river track from the centuries before the sands, and this track takes you underground where there is still water dripping from ancient stones. While my familiarity with Baghiri's work extends to his more ambient material, Yalda is a fresh take on the exotic, rhythmic instrumentation of the Middle East. Baghiri takes these instruments -- the dumbak, the bendir, Azerbaijan frame drum, the surdo, the djembe, the Persian zarb, the rababa, the oud and the didjeridoo, the Panjab clay flute, the Iranian ney and sipsi -- as well as Tibetan gongs, rainsticks, chimes, a stone flute, the tamborin, liquid drums, and even some "subliminal nature sound programming" and creates an ethnically rich ambient soundtrack. There is no political agenda and no abrasive editing and distortion of sound to Yalda. It is just a sensuous and textured ambient landscape of a region wealthy with its distinct musical heritage. Recommended. -Mark Teppo / Earpollution |
||
| Amir Baghiri's "Yalda"
is an exceptional example of world music matched with a
modern approach to electronica and a persistent feel of
experimentation that pervades this whole release. Mostly
a percussive record, Amir Bahiri's rhythmical grooves
never miss a chance to team with the beautiful
environmental audio and the warm analog sonics and many
times the percussions actually go in the background and
let the warping pads and the sounds of nature lead the
way through this fantastic journey. Recorded live, in a
studio and on site (field recordings) in different places
including Asia and North Africa, you'll get much of those
two continents: from traditional instruments and
traditional vibes to middle eastern percussive grooves
that will remind of Muslimgauze's tireless drumming and
programming or Gregorio Bardini's attentive
experimentation and exploration. Egpytian dumbak, liquid
drums, surdo, djembes, tamborin, Persian zarb,
didjeridus, panjab clay flute, native iranian ney and
sipsi, stone flute, tibetan gongs are just a few of the
forgotten instruments that Baghiri will gladly bring back
to our memories with enchanting and rapturing atmospheres
of distant places and unknown cultures. An important
testament of the peoples and the cultures of this planet.
Simply beautiful and globally exceptional. Review by: Marc "the MEMORY Man" Urselli-Schärer chain dlk |
||
| With a stockpile of
ethnic instruments, amir baghiri reinterprets middle-eastern drumplay, adding his own experimental flairs. yalda seethes with desert-evoking atmospheres, but the rhythms tower over all. A hypnotic tattoo of syncopated metal and skins, daygan sets a pace powered by ethnobeats, passing through a crickety haze, laced with occasional flutations (or are they howls?); the pounding drums suddenly drop out, leaving the background essences to seep into the beatless span of ruhe tariky (2:51), where water dribbles into organic ambiance. Those environmental surroundings flow into the 10-minute-plus title track to be progressively thumped by a rising rhythmic tide; the heady drumcurrents intensify and are backed by distantly tweedling reeds and spectral wails, only to swelter into something more gaseous. cross-dressing (huh?) mixes deeply throbbing skins with wavering horns, snarling didjeridu blasts and even other streams of percussion until it becomes a chaotically walloping morass... yikes! Murky metallic thudding pumps through the arid bug-infested sprawl of azar, followed by the even-murkier rumblings of simourgh and its machinery-like droneripples. In concluding piece, language of animals (10:26), a faraway droning motor-hum is made scruffy with randomish clatter; eerie vapors aren't so much beaten as crawled upon by unfathomable entities. It would be easy to compare this Arab-esque throb-a-thon with the sounds of Muslimgauze, though I doubt such overtly political intentions lie behind amir baghiri's foray into drum-dominated territories (though plenty of ambient space lingers in the backdrops). yalda widens amir's already-broad sound-palette appreciably, even if I kinda prefer his less-battered tracks of synth beauty. AmbiEntrance (August 2003) |
||
Pochodzący z Iranu (a mieszkający obecnie w Niemczech) Baghiri jest pod wieloma względami godnym następcą Bryna Jonesa - lepiej znanego jako MUSLIMGAUZE - którego dorobek po przedwczesnej śmierci powoli degeneruje się w ewidentnie niekończącą się serię remiksów, remiksów remiksów oraz specjalnych edycji i wersji. Nie, politycznym radykalizmem Baghiri Jonesowi nie dorównuje - w gruncie rzeczy jakiegokolwiek tego rodzaju świadomości przynajmniej na tej płycie (i o ile wiem na innych również nie) się nie uświadczy. Porównanie obydwu muzyków usprawiedliwia jednak fakt podejścia do materiału - a raczej dwu odrębnych materiałów. Tak jak MUSLIMGAUZE Baghiri łączy ze sobą oryginalne, blisko- i dalekowschodnie trybalne dźwięki z zachodnią elektroniką i zdobyczami techniki. "Yalda" to prawie 70 minut rozkołysanego transu, z którego z jednej strony wyzierają wiatry pustyni i zawodzące beduińskie melodie a z drugiej strony nieubłagana zimna mechanika (notabene nigdzie chyba lepiej nie połączona z etniką niż na "Azzazin" nieżyjącego manchesterczyka). Wielu słuchaczy kojarzy sobie pewnie etniczne brzmienia z zadumą i spokojem - tutaj już pierwszy "Daygan" rozwiewa takie złudzenia. Zarówno on jak i następnych dziewięć utworów mają nieliczne stonowane momenty ale przez większość czasu tętnią agresywnym rozedrganym rytmem dźwiękowego derwiszyzmu, w którym jakże łatwo się zanurzyć i zagubić. Znakomity album: muzyczni etnografowie zganiliby pewnie materiał za jego nieautentyczność ale też nie autentyzm był celem Amira Baghiri a hipnotyczne połączenie dwu światów dźwięku. Paweł Frelik -Thrash'em All / Antimusick |
||
| Jedna z najpiękniejszych
płyt jakie ostatnio wpadły mi w ręce. Kilkadziesiąt
minut niemal nieprzerwanego bębnienia: czasem
jednorodnego i transowego, innym razem finezyjnego,
kokietującego wielopoziomową strukturą niezliczonych
perkusjonaliów pozlepianych z elektroniką, jeszcze
gdzie indziej narastającego przytłaczającą,
inicjacyjną kanonadą. Esencja rytmu w jego najgłębszym
znaczeniu - komunikacyjnym i rytualnym - jakie nadawały
mu wszystkie archaiczne społeczności. Amir Baghiri jest rodowitym Persem, Irańczykiem osiadłym Niemczech. Dotychczas dał się poznać przede wszystkim jako autor pustynnych, ambientowych pejzaży, co zresztą nie pozostało bez znaczenia dla najnowszej propozycji artysty. Bo chociaż słyszymy tu przede wszystkim muzykę bębnów, momentami cichnie ona niemal do granicy słyszalności, stając się zaledwie lekko pulsującym echem. Zważywszy, że Baghiri jest Irańczykiem uzasadnione wydaje się doszukiwanie korzeni jego muzyki właśnie gdzieś w tym pustynnym, kulturowym tyglu Bliskiego Wschodu, w którym zbiegają się tradycje bizantyjskie, arabskie z szamańskimi rytmami stepowych nomadów. W sumie jednak muzyka Baghiriego nie jest przywiązana do konkretnego miejsca: to delikatnie podrasowane elektroniką odwołanie do rytmicznego archetypu. Genialne. wow | nuta.pl |
||
| Mroźne nocne powietrze
pustyni. Pył unosi się nad spaloną czarną ziemią.
Noc rozświetlona ogniskami ustępuje zapowiedzi świtu.
Miliony gwiazd, dziesiątki głosów. Taniec Derwiszy.
Pustynia, pełna ostrych konturów. Światło i Noc.
spalona ziemia oddaje westchnienia tańczących. Walące
o membrany bębnów dłonie, w transie, opowiadają o
obrazie słońca i przestrzeni. Opowieść o pustyni, jedyna w swoim rodzaju. Premiera wytwórni Vivo. Pers: Amir Baghiri, nagrał płytę wyjątkową, pełną wojowniczej ekspresji, odważną i energetyzującą. W kręgu Arab Transu nie znajdziesz łatwo tak radykalnej pozycji, w dodatku wydanej przez Polskiego wydawcę. Energia Perskich wojowników z intelektualną elektroniczną jazdą, korzeniami tkwiącą w Europie. Wyśmienicie wydana. Jarek Grzesica syntezatory.pl |
||
| Alternatywne
granie Niezależna wytwórnia Vivo kontynuuje swą ofensywę na naszym rynku fonograficznym - oto ukazują się dwa jej nowe wydawnictwa. Pierwsze z nich to album Yalda irańskiego kompozytora mieszkającego w Niemczech - Amira Baghiri. Artysta łączy w swej muzyce trzy płaszczyzny brzmieniowe: transowe rytmy wybijane przez arabskie perkusjonalia, elektronicznie spreparowane tło oraz dźwięki otoczenia zarejestrowane w różnych krajach Azji i Afryki Północnej. W efekcie rodzi się egzotyczna muzyka, która czasem ociera się o mroczny ambient (Daygan, Simourgh, Hidden Psalm), a kiedy indziej osiąga ekstatyczny wymiar plemiennego rytuału (Illanout, Ruhe Tariki). Baghiri sam gra na większości instrumentów, osiągając poziom bliski wirtuozerii. Większość dźwięków zawartych na płycie ma zdecydowanie agresywny charakter - brzmia one niczym wezwanie do wojennej wyprawy skierowane do mieszkających na arabskich pustyniach nomadów. Yalda to kontrowersyjna propozycja w czasach powszechnego strachu przed islamskim terrorem. Drugie nowe wydawnictwo Vivo to debiutancki album polskiego artysty Zeniala (obecnie studiujacego i mieszkającego w Krakowie), wywodzącego się z multimedialnego kolektywu Palsecam. Na Reworked znalazła się kolekcja jego nagrań zremiksowana przez "gwiazdy" elektronicznego podziemia z całego świata. Na przecięciu odmiennych technik tworzenia i preparowania dźwięku zrodziły się niezwykle interesujące brzmienia - klikająca mikroelektronika (Zenial vs. Maciek Szymczuk), ekstremalny industrial (Zenial vs. Kazuyki K. Null), głęboki ambient (Zenial vs. Lagowski) czy awangardowy free jazz (Zenial Vs. Jason Wietlespach i Jon Mueller). Sam Zenial daje się poznać jako nieustępliwy poszukiwacz niezwykłych dźwięków. Obie płyty zostały niezwykle starannie wydane - wspólnie z zawartą na nich muzyka tworzą oryginalne dzieła sztuki współczesnej. (GZL) Dziennik Polski |
||
| Amir Baghiri Yalda Vivo A! A! A! A! Muzyka wyłania się spośród odgłosów otoczenia, pełnych dusznej, pustynnej atmosfery, w której zdają się wibrować demony. Groźne, wojownicze tajemnicze brzmienia Bliskiego Wschodu. Nagrane przez rodowitego Persa. Wydane w Polsce centralnej. Gęste, ostro łamane rytmy etnicznych arabskich perkusjonaliów i psychodelicznie zawodzące piszczały rozbrzmiewają w tajemniczych, onirycznych niekiedy przestrzeniach. Dyskretny elektroniczny szlif spaja akustyczne dźwięki i nagrania terenowe, pogłębia brzmienie całości. Słuchowisko budujące hipnotyczny nastrój transowego rytuału. Rafał Księżyk / Aktivist sierpień 2003 |
||
 |
