Lost Songs of the Silk Road

Lost Songs of the Silk Road
Studio album by
Ghazal
Released1997
LabelShanachie[1]
ProducerBrian Cullman
Ghazal chronology
Lost Songs of the Silk Road
(1997) 		As Night Falls on the Silk Road
(1998)

Lost Songs of the Silk Road is the debut album by Ghazal, a trio made up of Iranian and Indian musicians.[2][3] Swapan Chaudhuri played the tabla, Kayhan Kalhor played the kamancheh, and Shujaat Khan played the sitar.[4][5] The album was released in 1997.[6][7]

Production

The album was produced by Brian Cullman.[8] It was recorded in New York City. The songs began with a basic melody played by Kalhor and Khan, before turning to improvisation.[9]

Critical recpeption

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[10]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[11]
MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide[8]

The New York Times stated: "Each piece is a long three-way improvisation based on simple melodies that the players push back and forth, and the reedy scrape of Kayhan Kalhor's bowed fiddle creeps out stealthily like a human voice, a rough and ancient sound against the metallic ringing of the sitar."[12] Billboard deemed the album a "soulful, pioneering hybrid."[13]

The Oregonian praised the "slow, dreamlike improvisations marked by elegant thematic development and marvelous subtlety and detail."[14] Ethnomusicology concluded that "the melodic expression on this CD hovers somewhere between dastgah and rag, but Shujaat's forceful improvisations tend to pull the whole closer to Indian styles and structures."[15]

AllMusic called the album "a fascinating meeting of Persian and Indian musical and cultural influences."[10]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."The Saga of the Rising Sun" 
2."Come with Me" 
3."You Are My Moon" 
4."Safar/Journey" 

References

  1. ^ Schwartz, Mark (May 1998). "Ghazal: Lost Songs of the Silk Road". Audio. Vol. 82, no. 5. p. 77.
  2. ^ "Ghazal". NPR.
  3. ^ Wald, Elijah (August 21, 2012). Global Minstrels: Voices of World Music. Routledge.
  4. ^ Moon, Tom (September 26, 2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life List. Workman Publishing.
  5. ^ Lavezzoli, Peter (April 24, 2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. A&C Black.
  6. ^ Nooshin, Laudan (2017). Iranian Classical Music: The Discourses and Practice of Creativity. Routledge.
  7. ^ "Music a mix of far-off songs". Ottawa Citizen. 29 Oct 1998. p. H3.
  8. ^ a b MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 2000. pp. 285–286.
  9. ^ Curiel, Jonathan (November 5, 2003). "India, Iran an ideal musical groove". San Francisco Chronicle. p. D1.
  10. ^ a b "Ghazal: Lost Songs of the Silk Road". AllMusic.
  11. ^ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 3. MUZE. pp. 733–734.
  12. ^ Ratliff, Ben (11 Nov 1997). "Longer Songs to Fill Shorter Days". The New York Times. p. E3.
  13. ^ Bambarger, Bradley (Dec 6, 1997). "Persian classical music finds U.S. ears". Billboard. Vol. 109, no. 49. pp. 13, 89.
  14. ^ Hughley, Marty (October 9, 1998). "Trio Aims to Reunite Two Brothers: The Music of Iran, India". Arts and Entertainment. The Oregonian. p. 44.
  15. ^ Henderson, David R. (Spring–Summer 2003). "'Lost Songs of the Silk Road: Persian and Indian Improvisations: Ghazal'". Ethnomusicology. 47 (2): 280–283.