Solo tombak work from this accomplished Iranian performer who has spent his life studying Persian music, placing it in both traditional and modern contexts. He has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, Hossein Omoumi, Keyhan Kalhor, Liu Fang, and En Chordais, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal and Caprice. This is a beautiful record of solo tombak, played in a variety of styles, including modern approaches more associated with free improvisational.

"Also called zarb, the tombak is the main percussion instrument used in Persian classical music. Made of a single piece of wood, the instrument consists of five parts: the membrane, which is stretched over the large opening, the drum shell, the neck and the small opening. The tombak is played with bare hands. The flexibility of the musician's hands, his nimbleness, combined to the movements of the wrists and fingers, allow a large range of tones and nuances.

Self-definition, a search of the unknown, a desire to create and a longing to transcend limits prompt me to take the tombak beyond its traditional scope into unfamiliar grounds. Authenticity guides me, but I seek my own language. A quest for new sounds, the approach at times non metrical, at times cyclic of musical patterns shaped through horizontal, vertical or even circular lines, enhanced by variable pulsations and multiple, acoustic layers are part of my vocabulary. A tension between the materiality of the acoustic object and the melodies of rhythms also comes into play."-Ziya Tabassian