Without You
[Bi To Be Sar Nemishavad]

Masters of Persian Music

2002: World Village/Harmonia Mundi 13746 80112


  1. Daramad Instrumental
  2. Saz va Avaz Bee Hamegaan [Mowlavi]
  3. Saz va Avaz Nahoft
  4. Tasnif Ba Man Sanama [Mowlavi]
  5. Zarbi
  6. Chahar Mezrab
  7. Saz va Avaz Rah-e Mey Khaneh O Masjed Kodamast? [Attar]
  8. Chandan keh Goftam [Hafez]
  9. Zarbi Bayat-e Kord and Tasnif Del-e Divaneh [Baba Taher]
  10. Foroud
  11. Avaz Masnavi Chon to Janan-e Mani (Attar)
  12. Tasnif Bee Hamegaan [Mowlavi]

Goddamned amazing. Incredible and mesmerizingly beautiful. I was introduced to this by Radio Darvish in June 2008 by way of the final track (which repeats the title many times so that it becomes almost a mantra despite the fervor and range of passion that varies behind it), a song so compelling and hauntingly resonant that I HAD to have it.

The only aspect of this CD that grates is the occasional vocal technique whose name I don’t yet know but reminds me of a very fast yodel…and it’s only jarring depending on the context of the moment it’s heard. Most of the album is almost unbearably tender or passionate, hot with color and tracery.

Most fascinating to me in listening to this (which I can do for hours on end, I’ve discovered) is the effect of the father/son vocals provided by the Shajarians: in octaved tandem or in unison they’re so smoothly fused that they seem to be just one instrument like Alizadeh’s tar or Kalhor’s kamancheh, with perfect balance and proportion when all three (four) play together, but on the penultimate track when Shajarian fils is shadowing/echoing Shajarian père (or is it the other way around?), it’s astounding…I truly believed it was a digital-delay effect electronically imposed, at first.


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