Zana Clarke
Zana Clarke brings the ganassi recorder into mediaeval courts and free improvisation alike, spinning monophonic melodies and new writing on rebec, voice flute and yayla-tanbur with Cantigas and the duo Nardoo.
With Cantigas she travels monophonic dances, Hebrew niggunim, Turkish taqsims and Spanish cantigas on period winds and strings, mean-tone and bright, with the sheer joy of music made to move rather than sit behind glass. As half of Nardoo she turns the same instruments toward original improvisation with Peter Biffin: jazz-tinged chords under ethnic and mediaeval lines, exotic and haunting soundscapes where composing and free play loosen fixed forms. Delicacy, precision and power sit beside a Middle Eastern colour spiced with room to breathe. The recorder becomes a link into another musical world.
Zana Clarke is featured on the following titles
Nardoo
Nardoo weave original improvisations from jazz, ethnic and medieval strands. Zana Clarke and Peter Biffin play new and traditional wind and string instruments on this debut of haunting, cross-cultural duo music.
Composer
Performing as Cantigas
Cantigas recreate the music of the Middle Ages with authentic compositions which use techniques of mediaeval performance practice such as countermelodies, drones, rhythm parts and creative improvisation.
Courts in Colour
Traditional melodies from four important courts of the Middle Ages: Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Gaon of Tiberias, Saladin of Egypt, and Alfonso X of Castile and León. Cantigas bring them to life on authentic mediæval instruments.
Composer
Travellers' Tapestry
Cantigas weave mediæval and folk-based music from Europe, Asia and the Middle East into a tapestry of trade-route exchange, played on recorder, percussion and early string instruments.
Silk and Spice
Cantigas follow the mediæval Silk Road in dance, monophonic song and improvisation. Recorders, rebec, vielle, oud, lute and percussion carry music shaped by Europe, Asia and the Middle East.