12/04/2024
A great review of Marjan Vahdat's new album "The Eagle of my Heart" in Rootstime written by Dani Heyvaert:
I take the liberty of assuming that the Iranian singer no longer really needs a performance, as over the years she has sung an oeuvre for which you can only have the deepest respect. This is a singer with a very big S, who can handle absolutely everything and whose voice is neither less nor more compelling: when she sings, you listen, whether you want to or not. This is even more the case on this album, recorded entirely a ca****la, on which the singer provided melodies for a number of poems or even wrote them all herself, as is the case for the title song and for “Come my Beloved”.
Anyone who has looked at the life of the Vahdat family a little will naturally assume that oppression, flight, loss, longing and abandonment are themes that are discussed quite often. If you start doing this as a Persian, you will naturally end up with great poets such as Rumi, whose “In the Garden of the Soul” is performed or Hafez, whose well-known “O King of Goodness” has a rather overwhelming melody. gets.
The famous poet Reza Saghaee, who died in 2010, is featured with “A Girl from Lorestan”, a poem in Lori, which in barely six lines describes the fate of many Persian women, who, even more than the fighting men, are victims of war. and repression. Siavash Kasrai, notorious dissident and praised for his “Arash the Archer”, a story that every right-minded Iranian is taught in his upbringing to this day. A little closer to our time lived poet and painter Sohrab Sepehri, a number of whose works are for sale in English translation and of whom Marjan has presented Beyond Places here.
You may already notice: this is not light fare, but it is a record of immense beauty, for which you have to make time. This is really singing that you have to listen to with full concentration and in which you are drawn in after a few times to such an extent that you have the impression that you understand what the songs are about, even though you do not understand one bit of the languages in which they are sung.
Music that can bring about something like this is scarce and is best treated with tons of respect, which means: put all activities aside, keep out all disturbing sounds and immerse yourself one hundred percent in the singing of one of the strongest voices I have ever heard. was allowed to listen. You should give yourself a wonderful gift and make this record yours. This applies to almost everything in which Marjan and sister Mahsa are involved.
