Gig review: Homayun Sakhi Trio, Greyfriars Kirk

By CAROL MAIN
Published on 18/08/2012 02:49

Far removed from the images of Afghanistan we are accustomed to seeing through the eyes of the media, the Homayun Sakhi Trio’s concert in the EIF jewel that is the Greyfriars Series was an unforgettable experience.

Star rating: * * * * *

For those lucky enough to be there, last night’s performance was an enthralling hour of music from Afghanistan. In two equal parts, the first was dedicated to the raga tradition from Kabul and the second was an exploration of some of the regional music the country has to offer.

Led by Homayun Sakhi playing rubâb, a type of lute unlike anything usually seen in western music, the trio are clearly all master exponents of their instruments.

On tabla, Hamburg-born and American-raised Salar Nader produced sounds that were almost impossible to fathom where they came from. Crazy fingers tapping out ever more complex rhythms were interspersed with lower-pitched beats from the base of his palms. On doyra, a frame drum not unlike the Celtic bodhrán, Abbos Kosimov, originally from Uzbekistan, played not only one instrument at a time, but two, then three – and threw a couple in the air for good measure.

Sakhi himself, born into a Kabul family of eminent musicians, is a star performer, the shifting rhythms and tonalities of the music increasingly embellished before he brought it to its climax, a unison beat, brief pause and then ready to start all over again.