Search - Dursan Acar :: Traditional & Contemporary Music of Kurdistan

Amazing traditional music & horrible contemporary music

Moses Alexander | Alabama, USA | 07/31/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Most people have little or no knowledge of the Kurdish people and even less knowledge about their music and culture. Kurdish people are spread out over Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia and Syria. Kurdish music certainly shows influence of these cultures, but still retains a unique flavor.The music show particulary strong influence from Iran and Turkey. The opening track, "Delale" opens with a solo exposition on the baglama (a long necked lute), which sounds a lot like the Persian setar here. This song, about a little girl who has lost her family during war employs a lot of Persian vocal techniques as well.Other instruments used are the ney (reed flute), zurna (oboe), and percussion. The songs have a strong sense of rhythm and eventhough many of them are sorrowful songs, they're strong and powerful sounding unlike the slower lamentations you hear in western music.If the CD were over after track 8, this CD probably would've gotten 5 stars. Tracks 9-12 are "modern" Kurdish music, which is basically just using a few traditional kurdish instruments over a background of sappy keyboards and other electric instruments. I have no problem with this kind of music being made (eventhough it doesn't appeal to me), but to put it on the same album with traditional and acoustic material makes the gap in quality between the two styles even more pronounced. My suggestion is buy the album and don't even venture past track 8 and this will be one of the greatest things you've ever heard."