Saz'iso - At Least Wave Your Handkerchief at Me (2017)

It would be fair to say that most listeners in Western Europe have never investigated traditional Albanian music. Thankfully, former Pink Floyd producer Joe Boyd has. Last year, he decided to pay tribute to his favourite Albanian style, "saze", by putting together a band of "virtuoso musicians and vocalists" from the country to record an album paying tribute to the style. At Least Wave Your Handkerchief at Me is the first full length outing from that band, Saz'iso, and contains a mixture of heart-aching, sorrowful songs and joyous traditional dance workouts. Heavy in lilting clarinet solos, jangling lute riffs, cascading violin parts and all manner of traditional percussion instruments, "saze" is an exotic sound that sits somewhere between traditional celtic music and the kind of intoxicating fare usually heard on records of middle eastern origin.