MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
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Album reviews with Ben Lunn: November 22, 2021
New releases from iyatra Quartet, Various Artists (Between Music and Ritual) and Yannick Nezet-Seguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra
covers
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
iyatra Quartet
Break the Dawn
Self-produced
★★★
MADE UP of musicians playing clarinet(s), violin, cello and a small militia of percussion, the iyatra Quartet have self-released new album Break the Dawn, which blends curious knick-knacks of British history with more distant influences, including Arabic love songs and Indian ragas.
Traditionally, this album would fall into the “world music” bracket, but this term is slightly redundant, so it would almost be better described as “classical” music, since traditions such as ragas are as old (if not older) than most European musical institutions. The material is handled with care, but one still feels that it is treated with a certain distance.
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