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Lian Ensemble

Majestic “Bewildered Earth” Concert Shakes Angelenos

November 2004
By Jordan Elgrably

Now and then, composers and musicians seek to create an artistic response to the terrors of Mother Nature. Certainly Los Angeles seems like the natural place for world music artists to devote themselves to the theme of earthquakes.

As it happens, on December 26 last year, a powerful quake virtually destroyed the city of Bam, in southeastern Iran. Most of the mud brick buildings in the historical city, including its ancient citadel, collapsed when the massive earthquake struck at dawn. The quake destroyed an estimated 70% of the city’s buildings. Tens of thousands of people were injured and left homeless and more than 25,000 people were killed by the 6.6 temblor.

In Los Angeles, home to the largest Persian community outside of the Iranian capital of Tehran, many Iranians contributed whatever they could to help the Bam survivors. Among those who were moved to do something was a group of classical Persian musicians who perform locally and throughout the U.S. as the Lian Ensemble. Following their benefit concert for Bam survivors a few months ago, the group began working on a new album, “Khake Heyran,” or “Bewildered Earth,” a dedication to the Bam victims.

On Saturday evening, Oct. 23 at the Wilshire Ebell Theater, Angelenos were treated to a selection from the new “Bewildered Earth” recording, when the Lian Ensemble gave a brief yet majestic concert that packed an emotional charge. Lian — now expanded from its original quintet to ten musicians and vocalists — performed in the Persian Sufi tradition, applying complex melodies to the poetry of masters such as Rumi, Saadi and Araghi. But the group also innovated, by fusing traditional Persian instruments such as tar, santur, tonbak and ney with a marimba, stand-up bass and cajón, the percussive box favored by flamenco troupes. The arrangements were at once classical and avant-garde, and the affect each time was both beautiful and unsettling.

The ensemble’s co-founder and arranger, Houman Pourmehdi, known in the Persian community primarily as a master percussionist on tonbak and daf (frame drum), composed the evening’s opening shocker, “Marsiyeh” or “Elegy.” A triste yet immensely colorful narrative of the earthquake, “Marsiyeh” began quietly with Mahshid Mirzadeh’s plaintive santur strumming, Pirayeh Pourafar’s wistful tar, and discordant notes by David Johnson on marimba, as the earth’s bowels awakened.

The frightening sound of the quake crescendoed in a percussive explosion, on a range of drums played by Pourmehdi, Johnson, Randy Glass, Ivan Johnson, Andrew Grueschow and Austin Wrinkle. If listeners were reminded at times of the avant-garde compositions of a John Cage or Philip Glass, that would be the influence of master percussionist John Bergamo, with whom members of the Lian Ensemble have previously collaborated, after studying with Bergamo at California Institute of the Arts. (Bergamo plays frame drum on the just-released “Bewildered Earth” recording, but did not appear on stage Saturday night.)

Haunting in their intensity were Iranian vocalists Behzad Behzadpour and Soleyman Vaseghi, the latter bringing impressive pathos and weight to “Marsiyeh” as he sang poet Araghi’s lyrics: “Sorrow has ambushed, come my love, do not abandon me!/I deserve the torment, but don’t leave, do not abandon me!” Behzadpour and Vaseghi attempted to convey both the helplessness of Bam’s victims, and the strength of the quake’s survivors who are trying to piece their lives back together.

After four immensely moving compositions that brought the audience to its feet each time, Houman Pourmehdi performed a solo on ney, an end-blown flute with seven finger holes. While less than three minutes in duration, his improvisation proved surprisingly powerful, with colorings of Persian as well as Turkish and Arabic classical music; indeed, the sound of Pourmehdi’s eastern reed instrument brought reveries of not only Isfahan or Qom, Iran’s ancient religious centers, but also Istanbul and Cairo.

The “Bewildered Earth” concert and its eponymous recording are the result of a fortunate fusion between musicians with a classical Persian music education in Iran and the free flowing, hybrid music community that makes Los Angeles one of the capitals of world music.

Jordan Elgrably is a writer and world music producer in Los Angeles.



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