Saz'iso in Albania - Valle Postenançe | Recording Earth

The town of Korçë sits at the foot of the alps, in the southern mountains of Albania. It's full of virtuoso musicians, like the members of Saz'iso, an ensemble put together by producer sJoe Boyd, Edit Pula & Andrea Goertler.

I met Telando (clarinet) through Edit Pula on my bike ride from London to India. I love the building intensity of the music, the bending notes of the clarinet, and that exhilarating pay off when the chord changes.

The genre, Saze, actually comes from the Persian word saz, the stringed instrument of the silk road. In southern Albania, however, it refers to iso-polyphonic folk ensembles. It comprises of the clarinet, the violin, the lute, and later the frame drum, that are used to accompany urban folk songs. The saze music started in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, when tempered instruments like the clarinet, the violin, and the accordion were introduced in Albania. The saze borrowed the ‘acappella’ iso-polyphony singing pattern of the rural areas, by having the clarinet play the role of the first soloist (‘the taker’), the violin play the second soloist (‘the response’), and the lute provides the drone.

If you like this, listen to Saz'iso's full album, At Least Wave Your Handkerchief at Me.

...or visit Albania!

Musicians
Telando Feto, clarinet
Agron Murat, llautë/lute
Agron Nasi, dajre/frame drum
Aida - Violin

Filmed, recorded and mixed by Oliver Burton
Edited by Alex Blogg