Tapestry is Vazesh’s second album following on from their 2021 release The Sacred Key. It is a totally charming album that brings together three very distinctive instrumentalists and juxtaposes different musical cultures, notably Iranian music and contemporary improvised music. It features the Vasesh, a trio with Jeremy Rose on bass clarinet and saxophone, Lloyd Swanton, the bass player with The Necks, and Hamed Sadeghi on tar, the lute type instrument played in Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan and other countries in that region; Sadeghi is Iranian, but is now based in Australia
The opening track, Zircon, sets the mood for the album, opening with the wonderful reedy sound of Rose’s bass clarinet accompanied by a kind of drone on the bass and a repeated rhythmic figure on the tar. Once the feel of the track is established the clarinet and tar reverse roles with the tar leading accompanied by the clarinet and bass.
The music develops in very natural and relaxed ways, but always building on the interaction between the three players and creating interesting textures. It all flows smoothly with most tracks segueing straight into the next track. Occasionally the music breaks down into a solo or duo section, but mostly it has the feeling of three musicians engaged in a continuous conversation.
