Bay area duo Teslim’s new cd is one of the most exciting albums to come over the transom here in recent months. Although it’s all acoustic it’s almost punk rock in its wild, reckless abandon, a couple of virtuoso American musicians having a great time with Middle Eastern modes and motifs. Violinist Kaila Flexer is an intriguing, genre-blending writer whose previous work has much in common with Jenny Scheinman’s instrumental compositions. Multi-instrumentalist and luthier Gari Hegedus is a primeval force wailing on a museum worth of stringed instruments - oud, lute, Turkish saz, violin, viola and also percussion - mixed together here into waves of lush jangle, clink and clang with the violin soaring around it. The backstory here is really nice - Flexer called on Hegedus once to sit in on accordion at a gig on very little notice, and then discovered what kind of talent she was dealing with - and what kind of chemistry the two musicians had. The rest - this cd - is history. Prepare to be lifted out of your seat: what doesn’t levitate you will soothe and captivate you.
It opens with Camila’s song, peaceful bucolic bluegrass as Kayhan Kalhor might have done it. The cd’s second cut, Ajuar de Novia Galana/Timrxou Street Dojo (a tribute to Hegedus’ Greek luthier friend and aspiring ninja) is a partita, its first part dark and stately, violin over lute, picking up the pace with Hegedus slamming out staccato chords as Flexer adds ambience above the fray. It ends on a beautifully climactic note. Track three, El Meod Na’ala is a march of sorts punctuated by somber dumbek over what sounds like saz, building to ferociously beautiful heights: it’s the kind of track you can play over and over again and never get sick of. After that, Knight of Cups slows down, plaintive violin over minimalist layers of stringed instruments. Azade builds to a fiery dance that just keeps climbing to a sudden, unexpected ending.
There’s also an improvisation here, appropriately titled Taxim, layering ambient violin over meandering oud, followed by the bracing, upbeat Stone’s Throw. Kiana’s Waltz builds attractively from its oud intro, violin carrying the melody, then turned over to a harp. Another partita, Elk/High Tide/Yetierre builds slowly and melodically to another dance with gorgeous chromatic work from Flexer with hypnotic violins swirling over the beat of the dumbek. After the gorgeous oud waltz Aley Givah, Petalouda explodes with oud right off the bat. It’s another scorching dance with layers and layers of jangling fretted instruments, screaming out for the repeat button on the cd player after it finally wraps up. The cd concludes with For a 5/Karsilamas for Sara, a tune for flutes (essentially a Scottish bagpipe melody set a couple of octaves higher), picking up at the end with violin and a lot of strumming. Wow - where were we - get the cd and see for yourself. Watch this space for NYC dates; Teslim’s next show is Dec 20 at 8 PM at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley Campus.
