Different musical forms but the same essential truth

He sees a divine inspiration which comes to humanity from time to time in different forms which are in harmony with the culture of a certain people at a certain time. Different forms but the same essential truth.
Those words describe the Sufi master and musician Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927). The theme of different cultural forms but the same essential truth suffuses a new CD that finds the mystical intoxication of Sufism in the music of Dowland and other Renaissance composers, as well as in contemporary Middle Eastern and European music. Divine Madness: Souls in Exile brings together mezzo-soprano Clare Wilkinson, lutenist Sofie Vanden Eynde, and on oud and vocals Moneim Adwan who is seen above - video sample here. Released on the independent Belgian label Cypres Records, the CD explores how music has the universal power to unsettle the soul; a thesis that also provides the subtext of Lutz Kirchhof's recently featured Lute music for Witches and Alchemists. Divine Madness, which includes an excellent multi-lingual essay by musicologist Annemarie Peeters, counters the austerity of downloads by reviving the lost art of the concept album. And staying with essential truths, that header quote is from Dr H.J. Witteveen's recommended overview of the ecumenical tradition of Universal Sufism founded by Hazrat Inayat Khan.

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