Unfolding
For its third album, Loga Ramin Torkian's modern Persian collective sets the words of 11th-century poetOmar Khayyámto music through soaring female vocals courtesy of Mamak Khadem. Like the group's last album,Unfoldinggives Eastern music a Western twist.  Torkian's guitar playing provides the cornerstone for the album. His rapid acoustic strums race along with Bikram Ghosh's frenetically dancing tabla on "Turquoise Land." His ambient axework glides through a delicately woven tapestry of electric cello, percussion, and voice on "Evanescent," while the sublime combination of his quarter-tone guitar and Martin Tillman's electric cello on "Through the Shadows, Part 1" generates ambient music without the requisite synthesizers. Earthy and organic with subtle electric instrumentation,Unfoldingis a superior follow-up to Axiom of Choice's Narada World debut,Niya Yesh.--Bryan Reesman