Ishati

Rajna are an exotic French trio consisting of Fabrice and Jeanne Lefebvre, and Gerard Chambellant, who have a passion for ethnic musical instruments and the sounds of other cultures. Ishati is evidence of how those cultures move when put inside each other's houses. Colliding sonorities and musical scales from Occidental and Oriental cultures weave themselves into Tibetan and Indian ones and come out somehow still recognizable, yet changed irrevocably. There's a difference between a band like this digging in the dirt of old cultural backyards and groups like Deep Forest or Baka Beyond. This trio understands something none of the other world fusionists could ever get to: They understand the various tonalities and how they work with one another. They've studied microtonalism as it presents itself in both Western and Eastern disciplines. On "Silnen Kempur," the sounds of the cimbalom are used as a drone instrument being played next to a yang t'chin, Balinese cymbals, and Tibetan temple bells with wondrously disciplined overtone singing done by the male members of the ensemble. The real beauty, however, is in Jeanne Lefebvre's voice. She has a four-octave range and an expressive power equal only to that of Lisa Gerard when she isn't bullsh*tting. "Nomineums" has her vocals sweeping through the santoor, frame drums, bells, and shakers. It doesn't matter what the track is -- her singing is the sound of emotion itself. Fans of Dead Can Dance will love this record because in its spare, haunting drama and deep, resonant tonal explorations it can appear gothic. But it's far from that. Ishati is the sound of beauty as it unfolds across time, culture, and space, performed by musicians whose respect for history and culture is only outweighed by their ability to create from it. ~ Thom Jurek