Music of Northern Khorasan (Ghouchan)
Haj Ghorban Soleimani: dotar and vocals
Alireza Soleimani: dotar
"... A True National Treasure ...."
Liberation
"He gracefully took his dotar and started playing. And it was a miracle."
"His Virtuosity and musicality are as natural as they are incredible."
Le Nouvel Observateur
"... one of the world's great traditional musicians..."
Todd Michel McComb
Ostad Soleimani is a father figure to many of the musicians of Iran. Many believe that he is one of the
most important artists in Iran. He is a bakhshi from Khorasan and he lives as a farmer in a small village
close to Ghouchan. This recording was made by a group of engineers and musicians at his home using the
state of the art digital multitrack recorders. You can expect something very new from this compact disk.
The tradition of this music goes back a few thousand years, however, unlike many other traditional music,
it is played with an amazing ferocity and yet the expressions are very refined. The music demands your
attention which we hope will be rewarded by very subtle and profound emotions.
During his performance in the Avignon Festival in France in 1991, Haj Ghorban and his son were asked
to come back to the stage for 3 encores; afterward they were carried by the audience on their hand and
later Haj Ghorban was interviewed by Le Monde, Liberation, Le Nouvel Observateur, BBC, and other
cultural media. His picture appeared on the front page of Liberation (July 31 1991) where he was called
"a national treasure".
The more we listened to this recording, the more we felt the graceful and natural beauty of his musical
expressions and the meaning of his words:
