Khan and Taschner Review

Khan and Taschner
Album Review: Black Marble & Sweet Fire

In this cool, creative transcultural fusion by Al Gromer Khan and Kai Taschner, the harmonies, melodies, and sonorities of Indian and North African music join with modern sensibilities and studio technologies, transporting listeners to a seductive landscape. Described as "a modern Mughal ambience," the music is inspired by a wistful recollection of the historic Mughal era of the declining Indian empire of the late 18th/19th century. Predominantly rhythm-activated and driven, the collaboration turns away from Khan's trademark concepts of "music from a distance" and "music as perfume" in favor of a more active mix.

Khan takes a credit for "electronic sound philosophy" in addition to sitar, surbahar (a bass sitar), and keyboards; Taschner is billed with "electronic sound design" as well as keyboards. With Khan's command of musical aesthetics and Taschner's studio mastery, plus their impeccable musicianship, the album has a lively and sumptuous crosscultural sound much greater than the sum of its parts.

Taking off from Khan's stylistic base, sitars play against synthesizers, while familiar Western percussion instruments beat against Eastern hand drums. Yet Khan and Taschner avoid the merely exotic. Instead, sophisticated Indian and middle eastern melodies join with harmonies rooted in the West, while the intricate North African rhythms imply colors and textures found only in the electronic studio. Taschner's studio techniques and sound processing layer the lyrical sonorities to build complex sounds and spectra. More than just establishing novel moods, Khan and Taschner create an alluring, seductive, sensual new world, at once spacious and intimate, rich and austere, colorful and focused.