Quarterly Critic’s Choice
The best and most interesting new releases of the previous three months are awarded a place on the Quarterly Critic’s Choice. Evaluation criteria are artistic quality, repertoire value, presentation, and sound quality. From 2014 onward, the Long Lists are stored directly with each Quarterly Critic’s Choice.
NEW: Long List 2/2024, published on 5th April 2024
Traditional Ethnic Music
Misagh Joolaee (with Sebastian Flaig): Ferne (Distance)
CD / DL, Pilgrims of Sound 4260187722201 (direct distribution)
With its tiny resonance body, the Kamancheh produces a unique sound, made of intoxicating overtones – delicate, whispering, poignant. The virtuoso Misagh Joolaee, who lives in Germany, has expanded its spectrum in an exciting way: Accompanied by Sebastian Flaig’s fresh percussion art, he experiments with surprising new plucking and bow techniques, he extends the means of expression through unusual intervals and double stops. And beyond pure craftsmanship, »Ferne« is always a touching, wordless mirror of the intense mind-states of an exile. For the jury: Stefan Franzen