Ya leil, let The Moon sing was a commission by Strange Moon (Kin of the Moon and Strange Interlude). The piece is a poetic meditation on the Moon’s reflection of the soul, as often characterized in Sufi poetry. The work is a theme and variations that encourage the performers to improvise and embellish throughout, playing to Strange Moon’s strengths as an ensemble that specializes in improvisation. Through cyclical variations, the melody subtly overlaps itself with its inversions, retrograde, and retrograde inversions as it seeks to place the audience in a trance through its cyclical repetitions and chant ghanili ya qamar (tr. sing to me, oh moon). The recording is live and mastered (with some cosmic reverb) by the composer.
