Kani Karadja
Turkey: Koranic Chant
Ocora Radio France

The Koran is considered by its creators and heirs to be the word of God. The Koran as music would therefore be one very long solo vocal performance. On this 1997 recording from Istanbul we get about 70 minutes of it. It is a world threaded with silence, of complex organic rhythm, the listening equivalent perhaps of watching staccatoed candle smoke for an hour. This is a neutral presentation, intimate and echoless, as opposed to something larger and vaster than mere human dimension. To my ears and mind, these sacred words do better when naturally amplified by a large, spacious place of worship. Here, Kani Karadja is your personal cantor, enunciating these exclamations with exacting and endlessly interesting virtuoso skill in a small quiet room. As with all the Ocora editions, generously annotated and exhibiting precise sonics. - Steve Taylor

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