Another highlight of the Rainforest World Music Festival this year was the Iranian singer Mamak Khadem. A former member of the cross-cultural fusion ensemble, Axiom of Choice, Mamak is now based in the USA. She continues to draw on her roots in Persian classical music and infuse it with Western musical traditions. The result is an ethereal, haunting sound of  vocals, percussion and Ole Mathisen’s beautiful sax and clarinet playing.

While at the festival I managed to pick up her latest CD, “A Window to Color”, an album she says is inspired by the poetry and paintings of Iranian artist, Sohrab Sepehri. In fact the poems are used throughout the album. It’s a worthwhile purchase.