Ensemble Kaboul – Nastaran

Цитата:
'Afghanistan has suffered 23 years of war,' explains Ensemble Kabul leader Khaled Arman. 'Most of the musicians have not survived. I don't mean they died in combat. I mean they suffered psychological trauma. They couldn't stand the weight of war and emigration. Now, some of our instruments are disappearing because nobody is able to play them.'

Arman is a master rubab player. The rubab is a short-necked lute regarded as Afghanistan's national instrument. He left Afghanistan in 1981 to study classical music in Europe and, in 1986, placed first as a classical guitarist in the Radio France Competition. Arman seemed destined for a European classical career. But then, he says, he felt a tug in another direction.

'People were always asking me, "could you also play a little Afghan music?"' One of those people was his musician father, Hossein Arman, a pioneer of the Afghan folksong revival of the 1950s and '60s, who sent him a rubab.

In 1990, his father emigrated along with a cousin, Osman Arman, and the three of them founded the Kabul Ensemble five years later in Geneva. In 2001, along with three other members, the group released its first CD, Nastaran (Wild Rose), which demonstrates their classical and religious repertoire. The Ensemble have since invited Ustad Farida Mahwash, a powerhouse singer who was Afghanistan's top radio star in the 1970s, to join them. Mahwash is the only female vocalist awarded the celebrity status of "Ustad" (master musician) by her native country. Mahwash left Afghanistan in 1991 and has since settled in San Francisco.

Arman says he feels a duty to return to Kabul to teach and keep Afghan traditions alive. Yet he will not be rushed into doing this.

'Do the people really have the calm mental conditions needed to come and study music?' he asks. 'First, you must bring peace for the people. It's not easy.'

Tracklist:

01 – Nastaran
02 – Mâ-e mano akhtar-e shabhâ-e man
03 – Lal Qalandara manzurme Kasualuna
04 – Saqi rakla desro labo djâm
05 – Sindhi Bhairavi (instrumental)
06 – Khorshid guna-e man
07 – Bibi Sanam djân
08 – Da zmung dada watan
09 – Maste indjelai
10 – Mahali
11 – Gol batcha-e Opiâni
12 – Gol dé par zolfo
13 – Dishab ke tchu nai
14 – Zirbaghali solo
15 – Délé mara bordi.

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