Fareed Haque/Goran Ivanovic - Macedonian Blues CD

This impressive album by Chicago based Fareed Haque (Garaj Mahal) and Croatian born Goran Ivanovic is an excellent example of the complex texture available to two acoustic guitars played by musicians with open minds and few technical limitations. Carefully arranged and well balanced between blazing virtuosity and sheer beauty, this collection of Macedonian melodies arranged for two nylon string guitars ranges from simple folk melodies ( "Lament" ) to adventurously modern sounding tunes ("Improv" ).

Review from Chicago Tribune - 2001: Although the music on this extraordinarily sensitive guitar-duo recording transcends genre, there's no resisting its mix of American jazz, acoustic blues, flamenco rhythm and Macedonian melody. Only two guitarists on the planet would come up with such a concoction, but Ivanovic and Haque (whose roots run to Yugoslavia and South Asia, respectively) play as if they're speaking the same musical language. Some listeners might be tempted to consign any recording as genteel as this to background music, but that would mean missing the puckish stop-start rhythms of "Kalajdzisko Oro," the mystical ambience of "Gajdarsko Oro" and the free-form expressions of "Improv." Those who have heard the duo in concert probably will conclude that no recording could capture fully the sparks that fly between these two virtuosos. But this disc at least documents the distinctly cross-continental flavor of their restlessly innovative work. - HOWARD REICH

Tracks:
1- Jano Mori
2- Gajdarsko Oro
3- Lament
4- Kalajdzisko Oro
5- Saddest Of All
6- Improv
7- Romantico
8- La Rose
9- Ethno Dance
10- Macedonian Girl
11- Jovano Jovanke
12- Zalopojka