Sobhgahi

Sobhgahi is a long piece for Persian orchestra and voice in two major parts. It is difficult to ascertain any details about the forms of music or the musicians because there are no liner notes and most of the info on the back cover is untranslated. Alizadeh is listed among the musicians and so are three from the ubiquitous Kamkars ensemble. The singer sounds like Ali Reza Eftekhari. The sound world is Alizadeh's usual one of about a dozen Persian instruments. Lutes, fiddles, a flute, and drums create an exciting, occasionally strident texture with intelligent, sometimes brooding melodies. There is a good solo for the kamancheh (Persian fiddle) and a wonderful one for the tar (Persian lute) that is probably performed by Alizadeh himself. Unfortunately, there are just two tracks on the disc; the subsections were not broken out individually. The singer's entrance is much later than is usual in Alizadeh's work, and when he does enter, he is given weaker material than usual with which to work. To some extent Alizadeh compensates for this with very strongly characterized instrumental writing, as in the powerful instrumental prelude of part two (which does lead to a good vocal solo). Overall, Sobhgahi is the weaker brother to Alizadeh's Raz-o-Niaz. It is better to start with that earlier album and only move onto Sobhgahi if one is enthusiastic about the genre.