‘Virtuosic performances on traditional Persian percussion instruments such as the tombak and daf, inspired by vivid memories of listening to music as a child.
‘The recordings were animated by the phrase ‘ritme jaavdanegi’, or ‘rhythm of eternity’. It reverberated in metrical step with their 11/8 time signatures, harking back to the aksak, a rhythmic system based on the rapid alternation of binary and ternary structures which is intrinsic to the traditional music of Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and the Balkans.
‘What’s most striking about Ritme Jaavdanegi, from a vantage-point within modern Western experimental music, is its supersession of the intensely programmed dynamics of so much electronica. Mortazavi’s needlepoint drum-hits bend in dazzlingly musical ways, but there is still an underlying focus on cyclical repetition, deeply conducive to that ancient transcendental quality clutched after by so many contemporary artists.’
Bim bim bim. Scintillating, rootical and enthralling.
Very warmly recommended.