In
search of SIMURGH is the new offering by Radiodervish,
a special project inspired by the literary work The Conference
of the Birds (Mantiq at-Tayr) by the 12th century Persian author
Farid ad-din Attar.
This classic work of Sufi literature starts with a conference
of all the birds, who decide to undertake a long and arduous
journey to seek their King, Simurgh.
The metaphorical journey which Attar depicts is a wonderful
fresco of the diversity that humankind has to offer - kings
and princesses, silver-chested slaves and damsels with moon-shaped
faces, archangels who talk to people and love-struck errant
sufis.
The tracks on the album are all connected with Attar's book:
one tells of the tender love between Layla and Majnun, emblematic
figures recalling archetypal lovers in Oriental literature;
some tunes evoke the figure of the Hoopoe and of the Phoenix,
key birds in mystic symbolism, while others capture the essence
of flight, the main metaphor throughout both the book and the
album, with ethereal tracks such as La Falena e la Candela (The
Moth and the Candle) and yet another, Cento Mondi (A Hundred
Worlds), recalls a space voyage.
The music makes up a sort of oriental suite in which emotions
inherent in the literary work generate a fable-like atmosphere
with moments of meditative and rarefied consciousness. The lyrics
are written in the diverse languages typical of Radiodervish's
approach, the three main ones being Arabic, English and Italian.
In Search of SIMURGH was released in the shops on 15th April,
with five thousand copies being sold in the first month. The
album was presented to the public on a hugely popular showcase
tour of the biggest bookshops in the Feltrinelli Libri e Musica
chain, from Rome to Milan, and from Naples to Bari.
In search of SIMURGH has earned great critical acclaim from
some of the top music magazines (Musica by Repubblica, Avvenimenti,
Mucchio Selvaggio, Rockerilla, etc), and from daily papers such
as Il Manifesto, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, Liberazione, L'Unità,
and La Repubblica.
The album has been featured on the main music programmes of
Radio Uno Rai (Radio Uno Musica Village), Rai International
(Notturno Italiano), Rai News 24, Radio Tre Rai (Il Terzo Anello
Musica, with a show hosted by Marco Boccitto live from Turin
International Book Fair), Radio 24 (with a special edition of
Rondò, a programme hosted by Massimo Cotto), Kataweb
Musica, Radio Due Live in Concert and GR2 Rai (when the group
took part at the May Day concert in Rome).
The top radio stations at regional and national level throughout
Italy have included some of the tracks from the album on their
playlists, and have been giving plenty of airtime to the group,
with a series of interviews and features.
In search of SIMURGH will become a live stage act from the 8th
June 2004 when Radiodervish will be opening the "Mediterraneo"
Festival at the Parco della Musica Auditorium in Rome, the first
date on the group's tour.
Music & lyrics: Michele Lobaccaro &
Nabil Salameh
Artistic production: Saro Cosentino
Arrangements: Michele Lobaccaro, Nabil Salameh,
Alessandro Pipino, Saro Cosentino
The book
The Conference of the Birds
Farid ad-din Attar is one of the most famous Persian mystical
poets after Rumi, and is known as one of the great masters of
Sufism. He lived in the 12th century, and from what we know
of him, had a profound knowledge of music, astronomy, medicine
as well as the philosophical theories of the time. Around a
hundred works have been attributed to him, one of the most famous
being The Conference of the Birds.
This is the story of a long journey undertaken by a flock of
birds in search of their King, Simurgh, a transparent symbol
of divinity. The birds finally reach their goal after travelling
through seven valleys: Love, Knowledge, Detachment, Unification,
Bewilderment, Privation and Annihilation.
Simurgh, which means "thirty birds" (the number of
birds who survived the journey out of the hundred thousand who
started off), manifests himself as a mirror for the chosen few
who manage to see him: at the end of the work, the metaphor
of the journey resolves itself in the discovery that the birds
and their King are one and the same being.
The book is clearly a metaphor of the mystic journey, Man's
spiritual ascent, and the challenges which need to be overcome
to reach the Beyond, to connect with it and to find oneself
in its image.
The book is full of anecdotes, stories, and fairy tales, all
expressed in a rich refined style that combines elegant poetry
and a profound mystic and philosophical knowledge which can
only be compared in western literature with Dante's Divine Comedy.
Attar paints a fresco of the diversity that humankind has to
offer - kings and princesses, silver-chested youths and damsels
with moon-shaped faces, archangels who talk to people and love-struck
errant sufis, characters drawn both from Biblical sources and
from the Qu'ran.
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