Iranian kamancheh player, Kayhan Kalhor, has a new album out with a string quartet called Brooklyn Rider, entitled "Silent City". It is seriously beautiful. The music is based on folk tales except for the title track which is an original piece about the city of Halabja in Iraq which was destroyed by Saddam Hussein in the 80s. I love this piece, the opening track, "Ascending Bird". Last Saturday the Hollywood Bowl put on a Celebration of Mystic Persia concert, with many different artists including The Whirling Dervishes of Damascus and Kayhan Kalhor with Yo-Yo Ma. Seems very timely considering current events. Kalhor has this to say in Spinner about music and politics:

"My personal goal and wish is to make people realize that a citizen of any country does not represent their politicians, nor should they, and to say that musicians are cultural ambassadors of any culture, not the political one… Unfortunately, most of the time I have to get engaged in political discussion with friends or reporters about the political situation in Iran or the relationship between our governments — not our countries."