Album Notes

Shahrzad has inaugurated a new sound for the modern Iranian music and "1001 Nights" is an album that validates her exploratory style ultimately. I was instantly taken with the songs' lushness & sensuality. As it was expected it has a very homogenous, cohesive and mature set of tracks! Musically, the album formulates an intriguing symbiosis between the NEW-AGE musicality, native Middle-Eastern instrumentation and other WORLD-MUSIC influences, along with some CLUB-influences from the European ELECTRONICA/JAZZ-fusion, and also elements from the TRIP-HOP and Detroit-TECHNO. It combines a wealth of velvety melodies, silky vocals, slippery beats and exotic ambience, without falling victim for the fusion's diluting tendency! "1001 Nights" is both about technical perfection and a precise ability to set a mood.

Shahrzad's "1001 Nights" is sophisticated and ambitious without being pretentious. It's feministic without being aggressive. It is political and nationalistic without being extremist and militant. It's a lovely book, masterfully written about LIFE, LOVE and PASSION! It might not have exactly 1001 stories to tell, but still its existing seven tales are intriguing enough for one to dim the lights, pour a glass of fine wine and relax on a comfortable lounge-chair in front of the window and surrender to the sweet and narrative voice of "Shahrzad the story-teller", and free-fall deep in her DREAM-world of modern fairy-tales and musical fantasies!

By Pourya E. Source: Bia2.com