The latest CD release reviewed

KAYHAN KALHOR AND ERDAL ERZINCAN
The Wind ECM ****

Hypnotic and mesmerising, The Wind is a glorious experiment in improvisation, undertaken by Iranian kamancheh master Kayhan Kalhor and Turkey's widely-revered baglama player, Erdal Erzincan. An attempt to marry the quintessentially improvisational elements of Iranian music with the more structured style of Turkish music might have failed miserably in less able hands, but here, Kalhor and Erzincan ebb and flow, joust and shimmy with the joy of musicians relishing the road never travelled. In 12 movements, they swing from the deeply contemplative to the highly playful, and in between relish their dalliances with the finest arabesques: interchanges whose grammar we may not understand, but whose conversational essence inevitably lures the listener in. A slow-burning, rhythmically insistent delight. www.ecmrecords.com