The godfather of the ensemble is composer and keyboardist {Ramin Behna} who is among the movers of a genre that has become known as talfiqi or fusion in Iran since the mid 1990s. Even today, thought, those who are looking for ways to add variety to Iranian music by exploring the music of other cultures, must get themselves acquainted with AVIZHEH. The two albums that Avizheh Ensemble released (Nakhostin in 1997 and Avizheh in 2001) are paradigmatic to Iranian fusion musicians. Behna was one the founders of the four-member Avizheh who in 1996 encouraged enthusiasts of world music in Iran to traverse frontiers while having their feet on the ground. Avizheh's tenor becomes clear if we look at how its four members continued with the genre after the ensemble's dissolution in 2001. {Pedram Derakhshani}'s RUMI Ensemble was able to attain a popularity that, had it been concurrent with cultural opening within the country, would've reached rock star status. He staged drums, bass and electric guitar next to tonbak, tar, setar, kamancheh, santur and other percussion instruments of Iranian popularity to add color to the sounds produced. Rumi has three albums under its belt, is releasing another this autumn, and has participated in many events within and without the country. Babak Riahipour formed O-Hum with {Shahram Sharbaf} and {Shahrokh Izadkhah}, a band that coupled the power of rock music with the lyrics of Iran's preeminent 14th century poet, {Hafez}. The band released their two albums abroad, not being able to get permission to sing to Iranian ears. Riahipour went on to play bass for many other Iranian musicians, either in concert or in studio, from various backgrounds, to make him one of the most active musicians on the circuit. He also released a solo album (to read a review of Trial and Error go to this page). Kamancheh player {Reza Abaee} was one of the founders of Rumi but later separated from the group. He subsequently worked with many bands (O-Hum on its first album), with the outlander AXIOM of Choice (in their Berlin Concert in 2003) and of late with DASTAN Ensemble (in their most recent tour). He also formed GABGOO, a fusion band whose members are still trying to find themselves around the globe. Abaee well understood the potential of his specialized instrument, which later musicians also appreciated next to various genres of music.

Ramin Behna was also active in these years. Next to composing music for more than forty films and television series (you can listen to the snippets of "Age of Unrest") and teaching music, he formed the important band Raz-e Shab ("Secret of the Night"), which released Dar-e Qali ("The Rug Weaver's Loom") in 2001. The band's concert in 2002 on three consecutive nights at the Milad Hall was one of the first of its kind in post-revolutionary Iran. In 2002, Behna released Zibazi with {Hooman Javid}, one of the two singers of Raz-e Shab.

Avizheh members never ceased to look for a new language that could incorporate other musical traditions with that of their own. The seed of this desire was well planted in their constitution. But it also proves the difficulty of this path, for it never fully materializes, because, if your music, as {Kiawasch Sahebnasagh} puts it in the liner notes of Not Like That, does not have a consistent structure, it will not last, and if you insist on a well-grounded structure, then it wouldn't be fusion. And many are wayfarers of the path of fusion who short of a destination (which is itself nowhere in particular) abandon the struggle altogether.

The Behna Ensemble with its new album, Not Like That, is still struggling, though, and it seems that it is no longer even concerned with a goal to be disappointed by not reaching its utopian gates. The question is: Not like what, exactly? The wall of this music reverberates with this question. The quest of Avizheh has now taken on a new course under the fingers of Behna and turned into a conscious distancing. In this album, the aim is no longer to achieve fusion but to turn a this-is-like-that into a this-is-not-that. Not Like That is no longer a crisis of identity. There is no attempt at arriving at a positive definition of fusion. To be more precise, the definition of the music of Behna Ensemble is borne by negativity -- Not Like That.

"Not like that" is a passage from fusion and concretion towards an obdurate refusal to find identity and union: "For musicians interested in fusion, there was always a propensity towards blues and jazz or some such amalgamation, of which we have amble examples of… We have tried to do away even with that. We have striven to make pleasant and amusing music without concerning ourselves with style." (in conversation with Ramin Behna). In other words, the music of Behna Ensemble is identity-defiant, even if Behna calls his music "Persian" in essence. In fact, the source of this music's liveliness rests in this defiance and refusal. The more the listener wants to grab onto a familiar melody on whose wing he/she can let his/her turbulent soul rest in the garden of repetition, the more he/she will come out empty-handed. At the same time, this music is vivacious, playful, and humorous. It doesn't look for meaning outside of form. It is lively because it has escaped the ever-hungry monstrosity of identity. It has left identity aside and is trying to come to terms with lack there of.

One must appreciate the ensemble's courage to release Not Like That as an instrumental album. It is perhaps another feature of its not-like-that-ness. Iranian music has for long tried to do without tasnif or song and Iranians are always thirsting after it. So is the Behna Ensemble music, to perhaps highlight its playfulness, to bring it out and to let the song repeat itself on the lips of its listener having slide down the spiral of the outer ear.Not Like That will test the patience of its listeners -- is s/he willing to listen to an instrumental music that s/he won't be able to identify with entirely? What is the hook that will catch the attention of a listener in this age of beat and rhythm? These are questions that Behna and ensemble have no doubt repeatedly asked themselves, and they have probably used their negative logic to convince themselves of the readiness of the market for Not Like That.

On the other hand, it is imperative for followers of fusion music in Iran to listen to this album and to benefit from the rich experience of Behna and ensemble in their years of searching for an identity for their music. And in fact this review is an invitation to listen to a music that will teach fusion aficionados the logic of negativity. In our Global-dazed era, which gives wing to the colonial passion of discovering that which is new, the logic of sameness dictates to the musicians to incorporate the music of different parts of the world.

The music of Behna and ensemble has several characteristics that makes it important to listen to: it is transparent and modest, which makes the source of its inspirations clear without being ensnared by them. It is simple and without much adornments, which makes it like a child who has not distanced itself from its instincts. And more important of all, it is playful, which make the music never to turn astringent and serious.

­Listen­

1. "Ashenai (Greetings)" 1'12"
2. "Chunan (Like That)" 1'24"
3. "Qesseh (Tale)" 1'44"
4. "Sabokbal 1 (Debonaire I)"  1'12"