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Concert Preview
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Washington Post, Concert Preview >>
Iranian-born Azam Ali sings with Niyaz, an L.A. group that yokes traditional Persian music to contemporary electronica. That's part of what Ali does on her second solo album, "Elysium for the Brave," but she also starts to define her own style. Where Niyaz sets Persian verse to music, Ali wrote the lyrics to most of these nine songs and in English. And though the album draws on Indo-Persian rhythms and instruments -- and prominently features Niyaz members Carmen Rizzo and Loga Ramin Torkian -- Ali's vocals and melodies dominate.
Among the more venturesome songs are "The Tryst," featuring hazy guitar by King Crimson's Trey Gunn, and "Forty One Ways," in which Ali varies her usually ethereal vocal tone with some earthier passages. The singer is still most likely to appeal to fans of such somber divas as Enya and Lisa Gerrard, and the album's title does suggest alarming goth tendencies. Yet "Elysium for the Brave" is accomplished and frequently lovely, and if Ali comes fully into her own, perhaps one day she'll even crack a smile. 09/01/06 >> go there
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