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Album Description:
Resonance/Dissonance (released on Khyam Allami's own label Nawa Recordings) is a rare and ambitious
effort. It is a double-disc featuring a solo studio recording on the CD and a live performance of the entire
album (accompanied by percussionist Vasilis Sarikis) on the DVD.
Resonance/Dissonance is a complete work, a whole. A result of many years of hard work and immersion,
the music was composed almost entirely in one weekend and recorded two weeks later in Feb 2011. The
DVD was filmed in one take in a gargantuan East London warehouse/gallery one cold evening and the
whole process was completed in March 2011.
Musically, it is based on the concept of Maqam (the modal system of Middle Eastern music), seemingly
stark and simple yet overtly complex.
Unusual approaches to the Maqams combine with original, highly structured and detailed “composedimprovisations”.
Recurring themes and melodic shapes render a cohesive narrative, accented by a
sensitive dynamic and rhythmic outbursts using unusual rhythmic cycles. All of which intertwine around
complete compositions and a dark rendition of the traditional Iraqi Maqam Nawa.
Conceptually, it is filtered through a life in London influenced by myriad figures; the work of C.G. Jung,
the mysticism of Jorge Luis Borges, the independence and forward thinking of Frank Zappa, and Secret
Chiefs 3, the ingenuity of various masters of Middle Eastern music such as Hossein Ali Zadeh, Naseer
Shamma and Riyadh al-Sunbati.
Mystical in its lucidity and abstract in its poetry, Resonance/Dissonance is unique, soulful, beautiful, dark,
heavy and hopeful all at once.
A truly boundary crossing musical work for fans of Middle Eastern, Classical, Progressive, Jazz,
Improvised, World and Avant-garde.
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