Trio Karimi Frana Montanari: A New Voice in Modal Music
The debut concert of Trio Karimi Frana Montanari at Tapadum, weaving Iranian Kurdish, North Indian, Afghan, and Anatolian modal traditions into one shared language.
The repertoires of a vast geographic arc — running roughly from the Maghreb to the Indian subcontinent — share two things: an intricate melodic language built on modal systems (makam, raga, dastgah, mogam, each defined by its own characteristic melodic formulas), and rhythmic cycles built on meters that can sound unusual to a European ear, whose role is to structure the unfolding of a melody over time through the alternation of percussive timbres, leaving room for rhythmic improvisation.
This shared ground was the starting point for Masih Karimi (tanbur, daf), Peppe Frana (oud, robab), and Ciro Montanari (tabla, udu) on March 25 — three musicians building an original, syncretic language from the traditions that shaped them: the music of Iranian Kurdistan, North India, Afghanistan, and Anatolia.
Twenty-seven people came to the concert, with over a hundred more following along online — a strong debut for what would become a recurring collaboration at Tapadum.