Niyaz
Azam Ali, who sings with the duo Vas, has one of the most seductive and effortlessly disciplined altos active on the world stage. Now based in Los Angeles, she is a child of three cultures, Indian, Persian (Iranian) and American, so her music encompasses a triple conundrum. She is joined by Loga Ramin Torkian of Axiom of Choice, who has mastered an impressive array of traditional instruments from Europe, Turkey and his native Iran, and Grammy-winning producer/remixer Carmen Rizzo. The project was inspired by Sufi devotional poems written in Farsi (Persian) or Urdu, which is spoken in much of India and Pakistan. Although interpreted through ultra-modern beats and ambient drones, the traditional material reigns supreme, bringing a sense of adventurous continuity to grooves that, in less inspired hands, could well have emerged slap-dash and prosaic. Unlike most tracks intended for nightclubs, these are as compulsively listenable as they are danceable. --Christina Roden