Saman Shahi is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian composer in a variety of forms from orchestral pieces to unique multicultural instrumentation, and from electronics to three operas. Where his 2020 debut album, 'Breathing In The Shadows' demonstrated his prowess by serving up an ultra-diverse set of three song cycles, its follow-up 'Microlocking' has a sharper sonic focus and showcases the composer's singular ear for texture and rhythmic interplay. While Shahi composed this 'Microlocking' suite of four tracks (in about 25 minutes), others have been employed to actually play the pieces, with Saman contributing only electronics on the last two tracks. "Microlocking I" is performed by junctQín Keyboard Collective (Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferretti, and Stephanie Chua). It takes a pitch-as-colour approach with six digital piano, half of which are tuned a quarter-tone sharp. Your first impression might be "these folks need a piano tuner" as mine was, until you realize that it is intentional. It's a strange interpolation for sure, and seemed a bit reminiscent of gamelan music at first, but there's a dramatic shift in the middle and the piano ensemble goes into deep dark places the gamelan would fear to tread. It does take a turn into something more lyrical before it quietly ends. "Microlocking II" was performed, recorded, edited, and mixed by Andrew Noseworthy, solely on electric guitar and accessories. Noseworthy takes a non-genre but still stylized approach in his playing and while nothing comes close to the sonic manipulations of Hendrix, he still manages to make an impression with rolling triplets, harmonics, distortion, electronic processing and controlled feedback. Only those specifically listening for it will get the microtonality the composer may have envisioned on this piece.

"Microlocking III" is performed by Matti Pulkki on accordion with Saman Shahi on electronics. This piece struck me as a cool soundtrack for a cartoon, as it has sporadic frenetic momentum, lots of mood and a cinematic touch, thanks Shahi's electronic touches. The drama and pacing in the music lends itself to the kind of over the top physical comedy mainly found in animation. This was my favorite track on the album. The "Microlocking Remix" was re-composed and produced by Behrooz Zandi and features Saman Shahi on electronics. It is the only one with a rhythm track also the longest at 7:54. It may not seem so at first but this is the strangest one on this brief album. Beginning with detuned microtonal pianos over sustained bass, the downtempo rhythm track emerges putting things just a little off-kilter. Now that we're in this groove, why not go full trip hop with a compliment of elements you might find in that genre? That could have been what Tehran-based electronic music producer Zandi was thinking. It also happens to work fantastically and saves this album from just being a novelty with a classical pedigree.

For one not knowing much about Saman Shahi and his works, 'Microlocking' certainly opened my ears to his creative possibilities, and while this album fits into no specific genre (regardless of Shahi's classical background) I can't say that it isn't interesting in its own right.