Mirror of Emotions

Farzad, an Iranian-born violinist who studied in the U.S. and settled there after the fall of the Shah, devoted a part of his first album, From My Heart, to treatments of themes from Persian folk music. He takes a more eclectic approach on his second, mixing in a bit of everything in an attempt to demonstrate the oneness of all music. His playing in particular betrays his classical roots, but the styles of the music range from jazzy and Latin to light pop. Accompanied by a rhythm section, occasional guitars, and unknown amounts of synthesized backup, he roams the world, creating soundscapes that briskly draw attention to themselves before falling back to leave him space to showcase his violin work. This is inventive music that employs a more thorough grounding in the classics than most new age music.