This post’s image does not at all resemble #30’s shot of a “Silk Road” remnant.
Its vantage point, however, was only a few footsteps distant from #30’s; #31’s photo was taken less than a minute later, from the same side of the Karakoram Highway, whilst en route from Gilgit to the Hunza Valley.
I suggest you zoom in on different parts of the image; in such a Karakoram landscape there are many layers, textures and contrasts.
(photo is ©️ Doug Spencer, taken at 11.35 am on 20 May 2024. Eventually, Pelican Yoga will share rather more of what we saw, on our way from Gilgit to Hunza)
————
Musical bonus (& July ‘24 Australian tour alert)
”Snowy Mountains” was co-authored by its Iranian fiddler and its Indian lutenist – respectively, Kayhan Kalhor and Shujaat Husain Khan.
For several years they co-led Ghazal, which was usually a tabla-included trio, in which sitarist Shujaat also sang, occasionally.
This version of “Snowy Mountains” is from Ghazal’s 1998 album As Night Falls On The Silk Road:
I saw Ghazal in Berlin, in 1999.
Kayhan Kalhor is one of the greatest instrumentalists I have ever experienced, “live”.
He is generally reckoned the greatest exponent of the Persian version of the kamancheh; this spike fiddle exists in various forms – and spellings – in various nations, most of which have names that end in “..an”.
Outside Iran, Kayhan Kalhor is probably best known as a key member of Yo-Yo Ma’s “Silk Road” projects & ensembles, and for his collaborations (as both composer and featured soloist) with Kronos Quartet and Brooklyn Rider, and with Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate.
A number of my most treasured recordings are albums by – or involving – Kayhan Kalhor.
I particularly love The Wind – a 2006 ECM release, which was recorded in Istanbul in 2004.
The Wind is a set of improvisatory instrumental duets with Turkish lutenist Erdal Erzincan.
That duo is about to tour Australia.
The lucky Australian cities – July 19 through July 28 – are Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The duo perform in Auckland on July 29.
Click here for “live” links to bookings; some concerts are booked out, but (at least, as I type) tickets are still available for one date in each city.
Erdal Erzincan is a fine singer, as well as a superb player of the Turkish version of the baglama – one of various wire-strung, long-necked lutes that are generally known as “saz”.
Before you recoil in horror at the ticket prices, you should see and hear this performance, recorded in Tehran in July 2021:
I am quietly confident that their 2024 Australian concerts will prove very much more memorable than any performance by….insert names here of umpteen allegedly-“iconic” pop/rock acts who charge even more, for a ticket to a stadium gig, as opposed to an intimate concert in an acoustically decent theatre.