Simin & Garfunkel Tripping

The most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel crafted a series of memorable hit albums and singles featuring their choirboy harmonies, ringing acoustic and electric guitars, and Simon's acute, finely wrought songwriting. The pair always inhabited the more polished end of the folk-rock spectrum and was sometimes criticized for a certain collegiate sterility. Many also feel that Simon, as both a singer and songwriter, didn't truly blossom until he began his own hugely successful solo career in the 1970s. But the best of S&G's work can stand among Simon's best material, and the duo did progress musically over the course of their five albums, moving from basic folk-rock productions into Latin rhythms and gospel-influenced arrangements that foreshadowed Simon's eclecticism on his solo albums. Simon & Garfunkel's recording history actually predated their first mid-'60s hit by almost a decade.

Following her superb album Where Water Travels Home and the internationally acclaimed, extraordinary collaboration with Norwegian star pianist Tord Gustavsen for the ECM label (What Was Said, 2016), German-Afghan singer Simin Tander opens a new door on her artistic journey, and beyond it she discovers unusual soundscapes: with her expressive voice and a freshly formed quartet, she sets out on an adventure of multifaceted connections with her new album Unfading.

German Afghan, internationally celebrated singer and composer Simin Tander, known for her expressive and emotionally evocative voice, received the Annual German Record Critics‘ Award in 2016 for her ECM album with pianist Tord Gustavsen. Recently nominated for the German Jazz Prize 2024 in the „Vocal“ category, Tander continues to captivate audiences with her powerful yet delicate timbre.

German Afghan, internationally celebrated singer and composer Simin Tander, known for her expressive and emotionally evocative voice, received the Annual German Record Critics‘ Award in 2016 for her ECM album with pianist Tord Gustavsen. Recently nominated for the German Jazz Prize 2024 in the „Vocal“ category, Tander continues to captivate audiences with her powerful yet delicate timbre.

What was said brings new colours to Tord Gustavsen’s musical palette. His latest trio project builds upon the subtle understanding of his long musical association with drummer Jarle Vespestad, introduces the entrancing Afghan-German vocalist Simin Tander, and explores the tradition of Norwegian church music in a most untraditional way: “For the repertoire of the new project, Simin and I have been working with an Afghan poet, translating and shaping a selection of hymns that I grew up with in Norway into Pashto,” Gustavsen explains. “This process has been challenging and really fruitful.

A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

Nader and Simin have been married for 14 years and live with their 11-year-old daughter Termeh in Tehran. The family belongs to the urban upper middle-class and the couple is on the verge of separation. Simin wants to leave the country with her husband and daughter, as she does not want Termeh to grow up under the prevailing conditions. This desire is not shared by Nader. He is concerned for his elderly father, who lives with the family and suffers from Alzheimer's disease. When Nader decides to stay in Iran, Simin files for divorce…

Lorsque sa femme le quitte, Nader engage une aide-soignante pour s'occuper de son père malade. Il ignore alors que la jeune femme est enceinte et a accepté ce travail sans l'accord de son mari, un homme psychologiquement instable…

A typical jazz format perhaps, but the delivery on Simon Tander's second CD is anything but typical. As on her memorable debut Wagma (Neuklang Records, 2011), Tander sings in various languages—English, French—and in her improvised language. Here, however, Tander explores her roots by singing in pashto—her Afghan father's language—with mesmerizing results. On Wagma, Tander already sounded conceptually and musically fairly rounded, but Where Water Travels Home comes across as a more mature and personal work, one that reaffirms Tander's credentials as an original contemporary singer.