'Not Two' Debut Album from Amir ElSaffar's Rivers of Sound Orchestra Out Now

New Amsterdam Records is proud to announce the release of Not Two, the debut album from Amir ElSaffar's Rivers of Sound Orchestra, out today in double LP, CD, and digital formats via Bandcamp. To celebrate the release, ElSaffar and Rivers of Sound Orchestra will be performing the entire album at a FREE release show, tonight at 28 Liberty as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's River to River Festival -- more details here. Not Two Album Trailer

Iraqi-American trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer Amir ElSaffar has mastered disparate musical styles and created a singular approach to combining aspects of Middle Eastern music with American jazz, extending the boundaries of each tradition. ElSaffar's Rivers of Sound orchestra presents 17 musicians from a broad spectrum of traditions; together, the group creates an entirely new musical language that transcends established notions of style and convention. In performing Not Two, a composition by ElSaffar, each musician in the Rivers of Sound orchestra interacts with the group to create a new approach to transcultural music through the combination of improvisation and composition, the merging of musical languages, maqam and polyphony, and the novelty of the sound.

Using resonance as its governing principle, Not Two incorporates elements of maqam modal music of the Middle East with jazz and other contemporary musical practices to create a unique microtonal musical environment that moves beyond the notions of style and tradition into a realm of uninhibited musical communication.

The highest ideal in maqam music is to reach a state of tarab, or "musical ecstasy," which results from the melting away of borders between a notion of self and other, as performers and audience revel together in the music. As pitches and rhythms become fluid, so do cultural boundaries: elements that traditionally divide musicians and genre-specific modes are re-contextualized in a fresh transcultural soundscape.

This ideal is central to the music on Not Two.