Established in 2013 in Tehran, Iran, Quartet Diminished has embraced the worlds of the rock in opposition movement, free improv, chamber jazz, and avant-rock. Their fourth studio album, following-up to 2021’s Station Three, is entitled Deerand. The name of the album comes from a Persian musical term, meaning the duration of an instrument tone.
Walking into the MoonJune label must be an honour for the quartet to be a part of the family. And allowing to have Tony Levin and Markus Reuter involved on this album as special guests, it’s going to be as Bette Davis once said in All About Eve, “A Wild and Bumpy Night”.
The result on the 25-minute opening title-track, which is in a four-part suite, starts off with Younsei’s enthusiastic piano work before Sadigh’s guitar and Peghambari’s clarinet take over while heading into these uncharted themes that have a threatening presence to the theme. The result offers these nods to Magma’s Kohntarkosz, Univers Zero, and Present.
The second part moves into this fast-paced guitar solo that has a cat-and-mouse chase which the Younsei, Fadavi, and Reghambari follow him in hot pursuit which will make you think of the Tom & Jerry cartoons before it comes to an Oldfield-like loop. Quite unexpected, but what can you expect from Quartet Diminished? They like to tease their listeners with hidden mysteries and clues by making you solve the puzzle until the very end.
Third section of the suite takes another turn in this post-apocalyptic nightmare where Sadigh and Younesi up their game by taking us into this dangerous corridor, filled with heavier themes that’ll send shivers down your spine before they add a little jump scare to get you ready for the battle to begin. At first, Sadigh channels his Fripp-like texture from the Starless-era, but once the rhythm section goes into this galloping mode thanks to Fadavi’s technique, it becomes a duel to the death in the fourth and final section of the suite where it goes into the coda.
‘Tehran II’, which is a continuation of ‘Tehran’ from their debut release Station One released nearly 20 years ago, is a hypothetical and rhythmical reputation the band does and keeps you on the edge of your seat while ‘Mirrorside’ blends in the ‘Danse Macabre’ from Saint-Saens, but adding in Levin’s upright bass to the core with Reuter’s soundscapes, it doesn’t mean that they’re here to make you comfortable, but hypnotised listeners with an electronic twist.
‘Allegrio per il Re’ closes the album with a minimal approach to bring the Deerand album in a full circle momentum. Here, the band, followed by Levin and Reuter, go back to the Oldfield and Crimson route once more with the Persian-inflected arrangements with repetitive techniques that’ll make you want to go back and find out what you’ve been missing. No matter what will happen next, Quartet Diminished raises the temperature levels up to a maximum quantity.
