GREEN MEMORIES by Azam Ali, Shahrokh Yadegari and Keyavash Nourai (LilaSound), $13-$18, available at Amazon.com or CDUniverse.com

A trio of Iranian-American musicians -- Shahrokh Yadegari (electronic musician/composer), Keyavash Nourai (violinist) and Azam Ali (vocalist and Six Degrees recording artist) -- collaborated on this project to create an album based on the poem "I Pity the Garden (Green Memories)" by Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad. The poem has a message of impending environmental devastation and has sweeping implications for the way humans relate to each other and their world. The poem begins: "No one thinks of the flowers. / No one thinks of the fish. / No one wants to believe the garden is dying, / that its heart has swollen in the heat / of this sun, that its mind drains slowly / of its lush memories." Green Memories, a suite of structured improvisations, uses collaborative creative techniques and an instrument called Lila, an electronic program Yadegari invented that transforms the input of acoustic instruments to create a complex weave of melodies and textures. Through Lila, he forges a musical environment with Western and Persian classical violinist Keyavash Nourai and vocalist Azam Ali.

By: Staff Reports