Alight (SGL 2403-2) Release date: July 2002 Amir Koushkani (tar, setar, vocals) François Houle (clarinets) Sal Ferreras (cajon, udu, bata drums, kulintang, bodhran, dumbek, timpani, miscellaneous percussion)

Although the 2400 series is Songlines' occasional world-music line, Vancouver's Safa make music with the open, improvisational approach and energy of jazz. Collectively its members have experience in many musical styles, including classical, new music, improv, and various Asian, European and Latin traditions. Safa was formed in 1999, a year after the release of Amir Koushkani's highly regarded debut CD, Quest (SGL 2402-2),

Quest is a personal interpretation of the classical and folk music of Iran, Amir's homeland, and Alight too is largely based in Persian idioms, but with an exuberant new-world edge to complement the old world's passion and melancholy. From an improvised dialogue for clarinet and kulintang (Philippine gong row) to arrangements of four Sufi poems (sung in Farsi), Safa display a love of musical exploration and expression across cultures. The 24-bit recording was mixed in analogue to Direct Stream Digital.

A brief note about Sufism, a mystical tradition whose roots go back more than a thousand years in the cultures of the middle east: Sufi-inspired poems, or couplets from poems, are often used as texts in Persian classical music-making. For Sufis the ultimate goal is to lose one's separate, ego-identified self in the love of God, and intoxication through wine or the contemplation of earthly beauty is a way to this ecstatic state. Music, especially extemporized music, can also be a way into the eternal moment; as Amir writes in the notes to this disc, "A music that can be nourishment for the soul was my first priority." (Safa means "inner purity, sincerity, sincere affection" in Farsi.)

(From Alight page, www.songlines.com)

Tracks and sound samples of the album SAFA: Alight.

	Listen
1. Chahar Mezreb	Hi | Low
2. Sufinameh	Hi | Low
3. Navae	Hi | Low
4. Shadi	Hi | Low
5. Whisper of Love	Hi | Low
6. Ninavae	Hi | Low
7. Drunk	Hi | Low
8. Nihawend Lunga	Hi | Low
9. Aurora	Hi | Low
10. Saghinameh	Hi | Low
11. Epilogue	Hi | Low