Artist: Ross Daly & Labyrinth
Album: World Network Vol. 8: Eurasia
- Mitos
Year: 1992
Line-up:
Ross Daly - cretan lyra,
laouto, oud, rababa, kemantché, rebab, kemencello, bulgari,
saz
Vassilis Soukas - clarinet, santoon
Pericles Papapetropoulos - saz, tanbur
Jamshid Shemirani - zarb
Spyridoula Toutoudaki - vocals
Socrates Sinopoulos - keménce, saz
Amin Alagabu - bendir, daff,
darabukk a
Petros Tambouris - kanun
Label: Network Medien
”Crete is quite
unlike any other place in the world, for a number of reasons: its
long history and the many powers and cultures which have left their
traces here – the special geographic situation, the islands and the
people have their own very special character. -- When I visited Crete
for the first time in 1971, I was so moved, so drawn to the place
that I would say it was by some inexplicable stroke of fate that I
ended up here and took Crete as the basis and point of reference for
my musical travels.”
Ross
Daly
I and my
fellow blogger saw Ross Daly perform last year in November in the
same festival where I was also had the privilege to hear and see
Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan perform (if you have not already
read my post on their album, you can find it here). The concert given
by Ross Daly Trio was most intriguing and fascinating as the cretan
lyra of Κέλυ Θωμά was in a perfect ethereal marriage with the
lyra and tarhu of Ross Daly harmonically accompanied by the virtuosic
lauoto and soft singing of Γιώργος Μανωλάκης. This
particular record is however older than the trio we saw and has a
very different ensemble. The band Labyrinth here is a kind of music
workshop consisting for the most part of professional musicians
concentrating on the many different traditions and cultures which
have influenced the music of Crete. Later the workshop came into
contact with various musicians from different countries and cultures
and thus the range of musical influences broadened to countries like
Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey etc. The result is an utterly
fascinating mixture, almost like a microcosmos of Eurasian musical
traditions which has the magical sensation of sounding at the same
ancient but new, alien yet strangely familiar.
Ross
Daly is truly an interesting individual: an Irishman born in England,
he grew up in Japan, Canada and the USA studying cello and classical
guitar and learning the Indian instrument sitar for three years in
San Francisco. Later he has lived and travelled around the world
studying various forms of local music traditions including India,
Afghanistan and Turkey before finally settling in the island of Crete
which has been his home for 35 years now. The music of Ross Daly
reflects the different musical traditions which he has studied over
the years. It should be pointed out, however, that the music always
never sounds of new age nor world fusion. The core of Ross Daly's
musical journey through the Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian
Subcontinent has been the search for certain musical archetypes.
According to Ross Daly himself the musical traditions which he has
studied ”are not merely a vehicle of self-expression, but something
which is able to take one beyond what one normally perceived to be
the boundaries of one's self into other trans-personal realms of
experience.”
One
consistent feature on this album – and generally in the music of
Ross Daly - is that the musical basis is modality instead of
”traditional” Major/Minor-harmony which the majority of the
modern western music utilises. This CD features seven tracks, some of
which are medleys, bringing together music from Turkey, Greece,
Middle East, Crete and the ancient and historical locations such as
Smyrna and Thrace. The expertise and talent of Ross Daly can be heard
clearly on this album as the seven tracks performed here form a
perfect and coherent whole. For a layman it is impossible to
distinguish the various traditions for one another. I do not find
myself competent enough trying to descirbe this album and its' music
in a more detailed matter. If your attention has been drawn in any
way of the brief description of the music of Ross Daly, I recommend
that you give this the record a chance as it is the album by Daly
which is more widely available. You can surely expect a musical
journey which knows no boundaries of time nor geographical boarders.
”If we are going to
be able to appreciate fully the wide variety of music which exists in
the world, we should forget all these recordings and drastically
increase the amount of live music we listen to. We should see this as
an inner and outer journey, in which any attempt to approach the
various musical traditions of the world also has to involve an
appreciation of the musicians themselves.”
Ross
Daly
Unfortunately
I could not find the one piece from this album that I wanted to link
here, but here are couple of wonderful performances by Ross Daly:
Written
by Παναγιωτιης
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