Narrante Golfam Khayam & Mona Matbou Riahi

• 1Testamento05:22
• 2Arioso04:01
• 3Lacrimae08:39
• 4Battaglia09:41
• 5Parlando05:40
• 6Sospiro05:16
• 7Narrante05:38
• 8Silenzio05:54
• 9Lamento - Furioso05:43
• Total Runtime55:54

Info for Narrante

„Narrante“ is the highly attractive ECM debut album of two Iranian women, Golfam Khayam and Mona Matbou Riahi, otherwise known as the Naqsh Duo.

The guitarist and clarinetist, both born in Teheran, have pursued further musical adventures outside Iran while remaining fascinated and strongly influenced by their homeland's rich and diverse traditions. In the process they have arrived at synthesis of their own, finding points of contact between aspects of Persian tradition and contemporary music.

The forms, modes, drones and rhythms of Persian music as well its call for improvisation are redeployed, to new creative ends, in their fresh and vital work. 'Narrante' has a vast spectrum of sources. Purely acoustic sounds depict plots that emerge discretely from often-forgotten or ignored regions of Persian music, such as the Guati, a healing ceremony in Baluchistan with its repetitive rhythmic figures and pentatonic scales (typical of the region) manifesting itself in 'Narrante', or the singing improvisation traditions from Kurdistan in 'Lacrimae'.

The entire album is a unified piece that traverses different stages and variations of a dialogue, each related to a formal structure with open sections for improvisation. It encounters the two instruments as two individuals, separately wandering, conflicting, clashing, converging and ultimately, becoming one. 'Narrante' was recorded in July 2015 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher and Ramin Sadighi.

Golfam Khayam, guitar
Mona Matbou Riahi, clarinet

NAQSH
(Farsi word: ornamentation, form, figure or any other shape which is related to visual arts.) Internationally active duo, Golfam Khayam guitar and Mona Matbou Riahi clarinet, is offering a palette of colors in an unforeseen musical territory by discovering the overlaps of Persian and contemporary music. Through this musical synthesis, members of this duo are seeking a path to explore their instruments differently: pushing boundaries for new colors, illusion of timbre, eccentric ornamentations, and uncharacteristic sound effects for the instruments. The duo presents a personal musical language in original compositions which are based on integration of Persian instrumental/musical adaptations (form, modes, microtones, drone, rhythms, and practice of improvisation) in contemporary musical frameworks. This ensemble brings together conventional and unconventional approaches of composition and improvisation for new prospects that is freed from any category of music and geographical borders. The duo is performing internationally.

Golfam Khayam
Described by soundboard magazine as “…doubtlessly one of the most exceptional phenomena of classical music in Iran” , Golfam KHAYAM has evolved into an international career as a performer-composer-improviser. This career reflects her unique musical language through the integration of her native musical elements within a contemporary experimental musical framework.

Khayam has appeared extensively as performer, composer, as well as soloist in prestigious music festivals including the Glatt&Verkehrt (Austira), Les Nuits du Monde, Orient-Occident (Switzerland, Geneva), Aarhus International Guitar Festival, Copenhagen Guitar Festival, Basel Culturescapes Festival, Aalborg International Guitar Festival, Yerevan Naregatsi Art Festival (Armenia), Mixtur contemporary music festival (Barcelona). She is being often invited as guest lecturer in different musical institutions, such as ”Royal Danish Academy of Music”, 'Aarhus Royal Academy of Music”, “Geneva Music University”.

Her enthusiasm both in contemporary music and Persian ethnic music and her extensive research on the Persian strum instruments has made her developing a wide range of extended techniques for the classical guitar. So far she has signed with Doberman-Yppan Records, Hermes records, Parsian Records. Her recent album will be released with ECM records in Spring 2016.

Golfam Khayam is born in Iran in a family of active artists in Tehran, began her musical studies at the age of seven with piano and a year later with classical guitar. During her early musical studies, she studied Persian music with Setar. In 2007 she completed “Master of Music” from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (USA), where she studied under the direction of Professor Clare Callahan, coaching of Oscar Ghiglia and Lee Fiser. She continued her studies at the HEMGE (Switzerland) with her tutor Dusan Bogdanovic, parallel studies of composition and orchestration with Nicolas Bolens, Victor Cordero, Marc-André Rappaz during which she acquired the degree of Interprétation Specialisée Solist in 2010 as well as the degree of Master of Performer-Composer in 2014.

Winner of numerous competitions, scholarships, and prizes. This partly includes Music University of Geneva (HEMGE) concerto competition, HES-SO fellowship fund and award, College-Conservatory of Music scholarship award, Tehran University chamber music competition. She has been teaching assistant in the guitar department at College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati, guest lecturer at University of Art in Tehran and research assistant at the Music University of Geneva. She plays on the George Lowden guitar.

Booklet for Narrante