Morteza Mahjubi - Selected Improvisations from Golha, Pt. II

Perhaps it's the heat or maybe it's Covid-induced mind fog that's done it? Or is it simply the music itself? Whatever it is, this second edition of archival piano-based improvisations from Iranian composer Morteza Mahjubi certainly feels like it's landed on my head in a billow of hallucinatory ancient dust. And in a lot of ways, ancient dust is what it is. Originally recorded as part of a huge musical library (847 hours!) for Iranian national radio between 1956-65 as part of its presentation of Persian classical music and poetry, Death Is Not The End have compiled a 14 song set of edits which speaks of an Olde World otherwise completely out of reach. There's universal beauty and transcendence in Mahjubi's virtuoso playing, a pair of hands that reach through the ages to transport you back to another time or hold you suspended in this one. And that's before you experience the Proustian rush of the vocals... Death Is Not The End's excellent notes tell us of the music's history, yet listening to the music alone still contains a chimerical effect, as if you're lost in the hypnotics of time warped ghost frequencies. The world is gone. The world is alive again. Dust never really settles, does it? It just gets moved about through time.