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Saturday Soundtrack: In the Shadow of Life (Niyaz)

Posted on Saturday, at • bought • 313 views

I found Niyaz because I'm one of those folks who prefers to listen to music that's either instrumental, or in a language I can't understand. Since Azam Ali sings many of her songs in an idioglossia - a highly personal, invented language only spoken by a small handful of people or even one single person - I get to hear layered harmonics and a language that I don't recognize. I can't even pick out any cognates. So I'm quite happy :D

This track has been buzzing through my brain for the past week. Finally yesterday I just played the same track all day. That didn't burn it out of my system, but now I'm able to listen to the rest of the album without thinking, "You know, I really want to hear that specific track again." (Pity my former housemates for the inadvertent auditory hell I'd put them through when I'd forgot to wear my earphones and play the same album over and over...for weeks.)

Saturday Soundtrack: In the Shadow of Life (Niyaz)

If you're interested in hearing more, check out any music by Azam Ali (that's the vocalist on this song.) Her career in the US was launched with the duo Vas, then she went solo for a few albums before joining forces with two other musicians in the group Niyaz.

Super extra bonus: want a really trippy experience? Have the song playing while viewing these photos of glacier caves. The photographer is quoted as saying, of entering the glacial caverns: "It was like stepping into Superman's lair and every changing shade of blue lured me deeper and deeper." One commenter on MetaFilter, where I found the link to this article, responded: "Forget Superman, this is an advance still from the set of At the Mountains of Madness." (Another thing to think about, when looking at these photos: glacial caverns are highly dynamic, changing continuously. These photos can never ever be taken again...because that cave - if it still exists - is now different inside.)

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