CHAKÂM Ensemble

Ensemble CHAKÂM Music At the crossroads of Persian, Arab, and Baroque music, Ensemble Chakâm, which means "poem" in literary Persian, brings together the tar of Sogol Mirzaei, the viola da gamba of Marie-Suzanne de Loye, and the qanun, in a dialogue of great finesse. Three universes, three paths, three heritages meet to invent music that is both rooted and profoundly contemporary. Their repertoire is based on the scholarly traditions of the Iranian radif, the Arab maqâm, and Western early music, but never gets locked into them. The original compositions and improvisations open up a free, vibrant space where rhythms intensify, melodies unfold, strings converse, and sometimes merge into the same breath. At the heart of this music, there are stories of departures, of lands left too soon, of nostalgia, of uprooting, but also a formidable vitality: that of meeting, of discovery, of renewal. Chakâm makes heard this fragile balance between the "I" and the "we," between intimate memory and collective momentum. Carried by brilliant musicians, Ensemble Chakâm composes a rare, delicate, and powerful sound horizon, where traditions dialogue without merging, and where each note seems to seek a common ground. Sélection Officielle Womex 2024 Lauréates du Prix of Musics from Here 2023 Winners ICART Sessions 2021 Crédits Sogol Mirzaei (France, Iran) tar Marie-Suzanne de Loye (France) viola da gamba Rimonda Naanaa (Syria) or Eleanna Pitsikaki (Greece) qanun