A longstanding project, World Suite is the result of years of planning, recording, editing, coding and design. In the latest iteration, pursuing our goal of delivering thousands of years of musical culture from every major continent and ethnic tradition, we started working on what would become the Oriental Ensemble in 2019.
A new instrument in World Suite 2, the Oriental Ensemble was recorded by a professional middle-eastern orchestra at the Georgian Film Studio in Tbilisi, one of the world’s oldest film and music studios.
Delivering classical Middle Eastern phrases (Arabic, Turkish and Persian), the Oriental Ensemble was recorded in two phases. First, we recorded each string pattern chromatically on an octave, using custom-written scores. Then, we recorded the percussion, consisting of Daf, Darabuka and Tombak, in Yerevan. All of it was done to stay as true to the style of each origin as possible.