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Axiom of Choice
It's not often you find Iran and the United States sharing the same billing on an album... such a collaboration is rare. But for guitarist and musical director Loga Ramin Torkian it just made sense. Loga was born in Iran and moved to the United States after the 1979 revolution. Axiom of Choice's latest c-d is "Niya Yesh"... meaning "spiritual oneness and knowledge." The album was recorded in Iran, California and India. Loga's inspiration came from a trip to Pushkar, India, where he collected live recordings of local musicians. Then the group's vocalist, Mamak Khadem returned to Iran where she recruited some of the best musicians in traditional persian music to record the tracks. The whole thing was then mixed together in a Los Angeles studio.
Their previous album is several years old now, but one track from it, "Valeh", still resonates with listeners. That's the moodier, more atmospheric side they explore on their new CD, "Niya Yesh." On this CD, Axiom of Choice mixes Ramin Torkian's quarter-tone flamenco/Persian guitar style with ambiences from India, percussion from the middle east and the darkly alluring voice of Mamek Khadem from Iran. Singing in Persian and with wordless vocals, her voice laces many of these songs with a dark mystery. She's surrounded by tambouras, cellos, frame drums, kamancheh (spike fiddle), Buddhist chants and ney flutes creating a global chamber music sound. Vas's Greg Ellis co-produced the album and plays percussion. Axiom of Choice shares a lineage with Vas and Dead Can Dance and a future in the global music bazaar.
The first thing you notice about Persian fusion band Axiom of Choice is vocalist Mamak Khadem, whose deeply soulful tones arrest the listener outright. Next up are the dark, subtle atmospherics devised by Loga Ramin Torkian. Based in Persian classical melodies, the spare string lines -- often on Torkian's custom quarter-tone guitar, which renders intervals common to classical lutes -- are haunting, even when accented by spike fiddle, harmonium, and percussion. For the first 12 minutes of NIYA YESH, the Los Angeles-based group bides its time, drawing closer and closer to the scented realms of Eastern atmospherics, then deploying Mamak like a world-music stealth bomb, her ululating tones radiating wordlessly from the midst of "A Chaos of Paradise." While the roots of this music are clearly in Persian traditions, NIYA YESH incorporates various Indian accents, including discreet samples recorded by Torkian in the Indian city of Pushkar. "Greener Than God's Dream" begins with a droning tamboura, in the Hindustani style. The connections between the rigorous classical musics of Iran and India are storied (and told musically on the excellent Ghazal albums by Kayhan Kalhor and Shuujat Hussain Khan), which prevents NIYA YESH from degenerating into some global sonic soup. Instead, this deeply reflective, highly evocative music weaves its own kind of universalist magic, touching even the casual listener deeply, making sacred sounds -- and sounds sacred.
information: Review by Ben Kettlewell
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Axiom
of Choice are emigré Persian musicians with their
roots in the repertoire of traditional Persian music. Led by
guitarist and Music Director Loga Ramin Torkian and
featuring Mamak Khadem on vocals, their music is conceptual
and combines Eastern and Western instrumentation in original
arrangements bringing a new sound to Persian and world
music.
