Kaveh Mahmudiyan — Between Hands (Global Sonics, 2025)
Kaveh Mahmudiyan’s first solo album, Between Hands presents his own compositions with the tombak (Persian goblet-shaped drum). The record is designed to highlight the instrument’s ample rhythmic range.
Jon Balke joins on keyboards and percussion, and he also produced and mixed the album. As a result, the music stays lean and focused, with the production intended to keep the tombak’s details clear, adventurous and shape-shifting.
Mahmudiyan, who moved from Iran to Norway in his teens, has steadily established himself among the leading tombak performers in recent years. His compositional approach draws directly on rhythmic traditions from Iranian music, particularly advar, an expression often described as a “circle of rhythms,” where a fixed beat is continually modulated into complex variations. Consequently, the album’s identity is based on development and variation: tombak patterns return, shift, and re-form effectively.
This album was released with financial support from The Arts Council Norway
Mastered by Espen Høydalsvik.
Cover design by Parviz Bayani.
Author: Tyler Bennet
