David Dalle
Thursday November 27th, 2025 with David Dalle
Sarathy Korwar's latest, a percussionist's feast! Didem Basar, composer and kanun virtuoso with I Musici de Montréal and more!
I was in Montreal this past weekend seeing a rare performance with Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan and they were magnificent, with 90 minutes of uninterrupted improvisation! We heard them last week, so we won't hear them again this week. The concert was hosted by le Centre des Musiciens du Monde (of which Kiya Tabassian is Artistic Director). Besides hosting frequent concerts with amazing local and international artists, they also release albums by local Montreal artists. I picked up several I was missing from the series at the concert and we will hear from them on today's and next week's shows. Didem Basar is a Turkish-Canadian musician who studied the kanun at the Turkish Music State University in Istanbul, followed by degrees in composition and analysis of Mevlani Sufi music. She performed, lectured, and recorded music in Turkey before moving to Montreal in 2007. She has played with many musicians and ensembles since then, particularly Constantinople. Her second album "Continuum" features her performing her compositions with the famed chamber orchestra I Musici de Montréal. This first set will feature a couple of pieces from the album, and since I was really happy with how last week's program turned out, I will be bookending this first set as well with two tracks from Turkish-Canadian artist Mercan Dede from his 1999 album "Journeys of a Dervish". I have not listened to this album in a long time, and it was a real pleasure rediscovering it again.
| Journeys of a Dervish Mercan Dede - Journeys of a Dervish - Golden Horn Records 
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| Current Yesterday Didem Basar, I Musici de Montreal - Continuum - Centre des Musiciens du Monde
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| Cry Didem Basar, I Musici de Montreal - Continuum - Centre des Musiciens du Monde
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| The next piece is a gorgeous Taqsim for piano composed by American guitarist and composer Troy Gifford. Its premiere recorded live here with pianist Maria Pikoula. |
| Taqsim Troy Gifford/Maria Pikoula - Live at Timuca Arts Foundation - Timuca Arts Foundation
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| Following this taqsim for piano, we will hear a taqsim for solo oud by Syrian-Canadian Nazih Borish. He grew up in Latakia, Syria where he taught himself the oud. He listened to a wide range of music besides Arabic including blues, jazz, Indian music, flamenco etc. and these have all informed his original oud technique. He founded a popular school for oud in Latakia, but ended up escaping the civil war and moving to Montreal in 2016. The taqsim is followed by a composition where he is joined by renowned Canadian double bassist Roberto Occhipinti and percussionist Joseph Khoury. |
| Ataba (Bayat taksim) Nazih Borish - Roots Of Strings - Centre des Musiciens du Monde/Analekta
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| Ali Baba Dance Nazih Borish - Roots Of Strings - Centre des Musiciens du Monde/Analekta
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| Fire Drums Mercan Dede - Journeys of a Dervish - Golden Horn Records
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| The second hour will feature the new album from Sarathy Korwar. Over the past six years, he has become one of my favourite musical innovators. For this album, he departs from his recent albums which had themes of migration and identity. This album is a more musically abstract return to his roots as a percussionist. His new album "There Is Beauty, There Already" is an immersive longform suite for percussion instruments. He is joined by percussionists American Photay, and Brits Magnus Mehta and Joost Hendrickx. They play an enormous range of percussion instruments, from drum kit to tabla, marimba, balafon, udu, and ghatam, with some instruments triggering and adding electronic textures. Sarathy Korwar led three days of free-flowing improvisations. They kept coming back to a repeated 40 minute pattern, and Korwar decided to build the whole structure out of it. The result "is designed to be played from start to finish as a singular, longform suite of music, evoking a constant sense of motion and intent. Drawing on the idea of repetition to the point of going beyond monotony and into the unknown – like a word repeated so many times it loses meaning – the record becomes a remarkable exploration of rhythm as trance and transformation." The album has 10 tracks with evocative titles, but they are not really important and most of the music flows uninterrupted. It is an astonishing, magnificent journey, best enjoyed as a deep flowing river in which to immerse yourself. Be warned it does have some enormous bass which will make your house shake! |
| On A Perfect Day Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| We Take Things For Granted Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| Skin, Colour, Sun, Lover Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| A Day Is A Cycle Of Drum Beats Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| Looking For A Ghazal Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| Amongst All Of The Rubble Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| Is There Beauty? Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| Beauty Doesn't Know What It Looks Like Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| We Won't Go Searching Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| There Is Beauty, There Already Sarathy Korwar - There Is Beauty, There Already - Otherland
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| Well, I can't help but play one of my favourite pieces from Sarathy! |
| City of Words (feat. Trap Poju & Mirande) Sarathy Korwar - More Arriving - The Leaf Label |
| Moj dilbere kud se seces Mercan Dede feat. Zerina Cokoja - Sevdalinka: Sarajevo Love Songs - Piranha |
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Loving the rockin' oud! And, coming, YES! Sarathy Korwar 'There Is Beauty, There Already' is WONDERFUL! And begs (demands!) to be played out in one piece -- very much threaded in the minimalist sorta way. Love it! Thank you.
2:43 PM, November 27th, 2025