iSound

The title piece of this recording of music by Aleksandër Peçi is based on a tragic incident in recent Albanian history. In 1997, an Albanian refugee ship went down in the Adriatic, drowning 80 women and children including a new-born child who came into the world just as the ship was sinking. The emotions stirred by this event are expressed through the voices of a sonorous text from the ancient Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, by the traditional singing of a well-known Albanian folk singer, by the soaring voice of a classical soprano and by the extraordinary electronic score that accompanies them. The keening spirituality of the music provides a haunting backdrop to the tragic story.

Albanian traditional music, marked by searing laments, the so-called mountain cries and an ancient tradition of singing in parts, reappears in Peçi's music combined with modern instruments, electronics and other modern musical techniques, only recently introduced into Albanian after years of extreme ...