Sus-Septed Tempus (for String Quartet) is an overdub recording in which Arsalan Kamkar plays the Violins and Viola and the composer himself plays the Cello.
Farokhzad Layegh: "Sus-Septed Tempus" is an unassuming account of our head-over-heel suspension in the world. It is also my second "suspended" attempt at introducing multiple dimensions to Persian music. In "The Book of Austerity" (in collaboration with Shahram Nazeri) classical Persian instrumentation was a vehicle for liberation and here -- with a strategic twist -- it is a Western string quartet. Written in seven movements, the context originates from the different modes of the classical Persian music; e.g.: Homayoun, Shour, Nava, Dashti, Mahour,this time, however, it is freed from the bleary "linearity" of love poetry and speaks to a panorama of human experiences. It moves beyond "the sadness of separation" and "the elation of union" to a plane where anger, suffering, bewilderment, and paroxysm reside. Outside the binds of a ground well trodden, we can find the open space of living beings with preoccupations other than the "unending story of love". In that space, suffering, anguish, and liberation are boundless.
(HER068)
Total Time: 37:10
