A strong spirituality from distant centuries, borne by stories, poems, melodies and images, comes alive in this project that is uniting the poets Rumi and Yunus Emre and the Norwegian visual artist Emanuel Vigeland.

Two singers, Mahsa Vahdat from Iran and Coşkun Karademir from Turkey, channel this encounter between these three artists when they allow cascades of words and tones to reverberate around the walls of Vigeland's magnificent mausoleum in Vinderen in Oslo, where the echoes last more than 14 seconds.

In addition to the vocalists Mahsa Vahdat and Coşkun Karademir we meet Özer Özel and Omer Arslan, both from Turkey, the first on the tambour the latter on percussion, in addition to the Iranian Mahdi Teimori who plays ney flute. Coşkun also plays the kopuz and baghlama string instruments.

The album, recorded by Martin Abrahamsen, has been produced by Erik Hillestad and is released by KKV.

Turkey and Iran are aesthetically and culturally connected. Their being neighbours and trading partners with common travel routes for many centuries is reflected in the tonalities, metaphors and poetic references that correspond between the meditative songs on this album. 

Persian and Anatolian poetry and music have embraced each other since the days when mystics wandered the region, when no language barriers or other boundaries could impede the free flight of ideas across the mountains, valleys and plains. 

As a young man, Moulana Jalalod-din Rumi emigrated from Balkh in present-day Afghanistan and settled in Konya in Anatolia, where he spent most of his life and penned his most famous love poems in Persian, inspired by his ground-breaking encounter with the mystic Shams Tabriz. Yunus Emre lived in the same region at about the same time and sang his songs in Turkish, one of the very first to do so. 

This was a renaissance period for free souls who shared ideas that have become essential for humanity, humanistic ideas that have survived the changing dictatorships in the region. These ideas revolve around the human heart, our endless wandering and our free access to the grace and love of the Loved One, and how love is the world's most important source of creative power.

The Norwegian visual artist Emanuel Vigeland (1875-1948) has expressed similar ideas through his frescoes which adorn the walls of his mausoleum. Here the many aspects of human life are expressed in this lofty space. The impressive acoustics hint at the eternity of the music and poems of the two mystics from the Anatolian and Persian traditions.

Track list:

1. May This Meadow Have Flowers - Chamman                                              7.46

2. Come, See What Love Has Done To Me - Aşk Neyledi                              4.38

3. Endless Ocean - Bahreh Bi Karan                                                                5.58

4. Come, Heart, Let Us Go To The Beloved - Gel Dosta Gidelim Gönül       5.02

5. Show Your Face - Ben Mai Rokh                                                                  5.38

6. Hear O Great Ones - İşidin Ey Ulular                                                           6.10

7. The Revolt Of Love - Dar Asheghi                                                                6.26

8. I’ll Not Die - Ölmezem Gayrı                                                                         7.07

9. Make My Garden Laugh - Bagh e Mara Bekhandan                                   5.28

10. The Caravan Has Passed - Göçtü Kervan                                                  7.05

11. Don’t Leave Me - To Maro                                                                           8.25