Artists
who's who and who's doing what?Kabul Ensemble
- country:Afghanistan
- style(s):Traditional
- label:Sound of World
- artist submitted by:
The Kabul Ensemble, devoted to the
performance of traditional music from
Afghanistan, was formed in 1995 in Geneva
(within the framework of the Ateliers
d'ethnomusicologie) by Hossein Arman, a
renowned singer in his native Afghanistan
who was forced into exile by the political
situation there.
Hossein Arman, his son Khaled (rubâb and
artistic director) and his cousin Osman
(flautist), form the nucleus of the ensemble.
They are joined on their last CD by the late
Ustad Malang, the great master of the
zirbaghali drum, who traveled from,
Peshawar (Pakistan) for the recording ;
As in most oriental music, the repertoire of
the Kabul Ensemble is based on a
traditional corpus of melodic modes (râg)
and time cycles (tâl, sometimes known as
zarb). The Kabul Ensemble shows deep
respect for the musical heritage of
Afghanistan (including the various
influences that have been assimilated over
the centuries), while retaining its own
individual character. The ensemble's
repertoire draws from the classicaland folk
heritage from the various regions of
Afghanistan, but its interpretation is refined
by Khaled's very careful arrangements.
The Kabul Ensemble's characteristic sound
is produced by a unique blend of timbres,
those of the rubâb and the santûr - the latter
rarely been used in Afghanistan, at least not
over the past forty years. The group also
brings together several percussion
instruments : the tablâ of Indian origin, the
Afghan zirbaghali (similar to the Iranian zarb
and the darbukka of the Islamic Middle East
and North Africa, thus reflecting the various
facets of Afghan music
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