Margin Optics

Naturally, the focus is on guitar, both electric and acoustic, but Anderson also plays some other stringed instruments (e.g., the tres cubano) as well as keyboards and accordion and is joined on several tracks by Gisela Rodríguez-Fernández on violin and viola. The sound is clear and spacious, with from one to three instruments on each track. The well-written liner notes provide detailed documentation of both the sources and Anderson’s approach to adapting them for Western instruments.

The album opens with a drone played on accordion followed by a flurry of acoustic hammer-ons and pull-offs; this tune, named “Quodlibet” in the original source after a Central Asian genre (with a Latin name), combines three distinct melodies from distinct traditions, all in less than three minutes. As Anderson observes in the liner notes, on this and other tracks, it was necessary to adapt the microtones of the original compositions for instruments (guitars and keyboards) that are restricted to semitones; a comparison with the original demonstrates the effectiveness of Anderson’s approach as well as the beauty and allure of the tradition.

Similarly, “Taqsim for Guitar” involves the adaptation of a Western instrument — the violin —  widely used in modern Arab music because of its ability to produce microtones (there being, of course, no frets). Anderson’s performance of this lovely Syrian composition captures its stateliness, with cascades of notes and bent strings punctuated by slight pauses. “Rabāba,” by contrast, is built from three tracks (electric guitar and traditional Cuban and Mexican stringed instruments) that combine to recreate the driving repetition that characterizes the original solo piece on the instrument for which it is named.

Other pieces make use of electric piano to create drones over which the melodies dance. “Pair of Duduk” is characterized by a gentle rise in pitch, while “Rop Koh” immediately reveals its Southeast Asian origins (Cambodia) without descending into exoticism, especially with the pedal steel recreating the feel of a bowed instrument. A very simple, trance-inducing Vietnamese melody played entirely on electric piano (“Whistle Song”) closes out the set.

Rodríguez-Fernández’s contributions on violin and viola enliven “Sarvi Simin” and “Zar.” As a result of the aforementioned adaptability of the bowed instruments, these tracks are the most non-Western-sounding in the set. Their inclusion also contributes variety to the overall sound of the album.

Among the most ambitious projects in Anderson’s ambitious catalog, The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music Vol. 1 is a major achievement in terms of scholarship and bringing these fascinating and compelling pieces of music to a broad audience, in like manner as Harry Smith’s anthology helped popularize U.S. folk music. It is also a pleasure to listen to and a demonstration of Anderson’s understated mastery of the guitar. Hopefully, other volumes will follow.