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Love, Crystal and Stone

by TAK ensemble & Ashkan Behzadi

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  • 76-page book in paper slipcase with CD insert
    Designed by Sonnenzimmer
    With poetry by Federico García Lorca & translations by Ahmad Shamlou
    Original essay by Saharnaz Samaeinejad
    Paintings by Mehrdad Jafari

    The physical release weaves together the magical imagery and philosophical backdrop of Behzadi’s composition, taking the form of a beautifully constructed art book. The book, designed by Chicago-based graphic art studio Sonnenzimmer, creates an over-arching intermedia dialogue in three languages that enhances and elaborates upon Behzadi’s music. This material companion to the album weaves together Lorca’s poetry in Spanish side by side with Shamlou’s Farsi translations, paintings by Mehrdad Jafari, and both commentary and historically-informed imaginary letters in English written by cultural theorist Saharnaz Samaeinejad.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Love, Crystal and Stone via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 4 Tak Ensemble releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Love, Crystal and Stone, Star Maker Fragments, Oor, and Ecstatic Music - TAK plays BROOK. , and , .

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      $29.32 USD or more (30% OFF)

     

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about

Ashkan Behzadi’s Love, Crystal and Stone stretches musical lyricism to its limit, imagining an impossibly radical, revolutionary folk music that pushes the individual and collective virtuosity of TAK ensemble to new heights. This concert length work is a sensual, intricately interwoven, and deeply philosophical setting of the poetry of Federico García Lorca. Behzadi’s interest in Lorca’s poetry began when, as an architecture student in Tehran, he listened to tapes of the Iranian revolutionary poet Ahmad Shamlou reading his translations of Lorca aloud. In Iran, a society with a rich cultural fluency in poetics, Lorca’s poems have a political as well as aesthetic significance. In parallel, painter Mehrdad Jafari drew influence from Shamlou’s politically charged translations and reimaginings of Lorca’s poetry, bringing together bold visual gestures and elemental icons evoking birds, rivers, fear, ecstasy, and exaltation.

credits

released May 10, 2022

Composed by Ashkan Behzadi
Performed by TAK ensemble:
Laura Cocks - flutes
Madison Greenstone - clarinets
Marina Kifferstein - violin
Ellery Trafford - percussion
Charlotte Mundy - voice

Recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio in March, 2021
Mixed by David Bird
Mastered by Joseph Branciforte

Album and book design by Sonnenzimmer
Poetry by Federico García Lorca and translations by Ahmad Shamlou
Essays by Saharnaz Samaeinejad
Visual Art by Mehrdad Jafari

With support from the Canada Council of the Arts

Deep gratitude to our collaborators and friends and cherished listeners, supporters, and wide family <3

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Tak Ensemble New York, New York

Regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), TAK delivers energetic performances "that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” (WIRE Magazine). The ambitious ensemble “impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). ... more

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