Peace of Love (2011)
8 tracks, 52 minutes
Not only can I not find this album anywhere online to stream or buy, I can barely even find mention of it. As far as I can tell, it was also released with the tracks in a different order as Dance of the Sea, but even then, barely any information anywhere at all. Bizarre. I’ve stuck it on Google Drive for you to download it, though.
Some collaborations just make you think ‘what on Earth made you think to combine these musical elements in this way?’ Usually, projects that beg that question end up falling flat and losing the best bits of every style involved. That’s not the case with the Zarbang Quartet.
Zarbang are actually quite a well-respected Persian percussion group based in Germany, playing with many different line-ups over the years, but in this quartet form, they’re a little different. Zarbang founders, percussionists (and brothers) Behnam and Reza Samani, are the two in the four that represent Iran, and welcome Afghan percussionist Hakim Ludin and Greek player of the Pontic lýra (bowed lute) Matthaios Tsahouridis to their sound.
There’s something really cool about the way the quartet is set up, the massed percussion backing one single melody instrument. The percussion mostly consists of hand drums of various shapes – the tombak goblet drum, the large daf frame drum and the small riqq tambourine, as well as occasional cameos from the cajón box drum and the udu water pot – which are all capable of stunningly complex rhythms and overlapping harmonics, but they never overpower the lýra.
The way Tsahouridis plays the lýra (and sings) traces the influences to and from the Pontic tradition, reflecting the cultural identity of the region of Pontus as a Greek settlement in what is now Turkey. In his hands, the instrument’s position in a long temporal and geographical chain becomes apparent: not only is the lýra’s connection to other Greek instruments clear, it also resembles the Turkish and Persian kemençe/kamancheh and the Arabic rebab, and then onto the kobyz of Central Asia and the sarangi of India, as well as the gusle and the gadulka in the Balkans, in the other direction. It’s amazing how the most subtle playing techniques, a melodic twiddle here or a rhythmic flick of the wrist can imply so much history and geography.
I find it really strange that this album has almost completely disappeared from the internet’s knowledge. It’s a really great listen, and it definitely deserves more notice than the absolute zero that it has at the moment. Why not do the world a favour: give this album a listen, and if you like it, tell someone else about it too!
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