San Francisco Bay Guardian

BEST OF THE BAY

July 26, 2006

BEST GLOBAL-INTEL HULLABALLOO

New music ensemble Nanos Operetta has enough energy and appetite to make its 6 members seem like 60. Eclectic in taste, influence, instrumentation, and style, Nanos's restless architecture concentrates a musical cosmos embracing Philip Glass, Carl Stalling, Eastern European folk, Persian pop, Leonard Cohen, and Bernard Herrmann into frenetic, wistful, brooding, and exuberant passages traversed by sly and languid vocal lines. Elegantly subdued front man Ali Tabatabai, who cofounded Nanos with multi-instrumentalist Max Baloian, keeps it all together beautifully, somehow. In keeping with its voracious reach, some of Nanos's most vibrant work comes in inspired collaborations with an international assortment of artists, like Iranian documentarian Bahman Kiarostami. The quarterly installments of the groups recent 10-part performance series, 3 Drops of Blood (begun in 2004 and curated by Tabatabai), have become much-anticipated events, showcasing musical, dance, and performance works by the likes of Paul Dresher, Butoh masters Koichi and Hiroko Tamano, accordionist Guy Klucevsek, and theatrical dance troupe Kunst-Stoff. If you haven't caught it yet, you have one more chance: Installment X happens Aug. 4 & 5 at Project Artaud.

www.nanosoperetta.com