This absolutely entrancing music by Iranian-born, Pittsburgh-based composer Reza Vali represents one of the most thoroughgoing attempts since
Ravi Shankar's sitar concertos to turn Western instruments to the performance of materials derived from the procedures of a non-Western musical culture. Vali's works draw strongly on the Persian music of his native country, with both its classical dastgah modal system and simpler folk songs and dances serving as models. It is the sheer variety of Vali's works that makes them enjoyable for those without a direct connection to his cultural background: he comes up with all kinds of ways of making sense in a Western context. Hear the sizzling end of the Love Song, track 7, from Vali's Folk Songs (Set No. 12A), as vocalist Mimi Lerner lurks on a single syllable among the sounds of a string quartet and then explodes with an unmistakable expression of the love and desire represented in the text. One of the two sets of Vali's "folk songs" performed here (he has written 16 to date, often mixing traditional and original melodies) is vocal, the other instrumental. The instrumental groups are always shifting; many are percussion-heavy, but the most "Persian" work on the disc, Calligraphy No. 4 (track 8), featuring an Iranian santoor (hammer dulcimer) player realizing a traditional classical mode, is artfully arranged for string quartet accompaniment. The Western flute is given an exotic sound through lines written for the player to hum while playing the instrument. These works were recorded at different times and places, but Vali, acting as his own producer, has knitted them together into a convincing whole that is more than the sum of its very diverse parts.