"Sima Bina is a singer of strength and beauty."
Cliff Furnald, RootsWorld



The music presented in this recording is the folk music of Khorassan, a province in the northeastern part of Iran bordering Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.
Accompanied by the dotar, a two stringed traditional instrument of Khorassan, Sima Bina sings the lyrics of regional folk songs of the area - songs of love, life and mysticism interwoven with local mythology. Many of the these melodies often have a simple and plain character, something she also attributes to the wild flowers from the mountains of northern Khorassan.
Sima Bina is Iran's foremost folklorist singer. She has lived and traveled extensively within Khorassan researching and recording the ancient melodies of the region. She re-orchestrates them for her concerts using her own musical intuition and knowledge in order to enrich the original music with the variety and complexity that characterize her concert presentations. In this recording she presents arrangements recorded live at her 1995 concert in Vienna.