Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan

Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan

Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan are an instrumental duo combining Persian and Turkish traditions. Their collaboration centres on a recording called The Wind, a 12-part suite based on Persian and Turkish music.

Kayhan Kalhor is an Iranian musician who works frequently with other artists and has also collaborated with the Silk Road Project, a programme that encourages multicultural collaboration. For this project, he studies Turkish music with Erdal Erzincan after a friend puts the two in contact.

Kalhor describes himself as a classical musician from Iran, while Erzincan comes from eastern Turkey and works within a folk tradition with a Sufi background. Although they do not speak each other’s language, they build the recording through musical interaction rather than translation.

Kalhor plays the kamancheh, or spike fiddle, a bowed instrument with a long neck and four steel strings. Erzincan plays the Turkish baglama, a pear-shaped lute. Their partnership is presented as a way of connecting related musical traditions across Iran and Turkey.