Attention must be paid. A recent study out of Harvard University suggested that people spend 47% of their waking hours with their minds wandering. A theatre director of my acquaintance once stated he was aware that audiences "zone out," only to have their attention recaptured when something new happens.

Test this universal of human cognition yourself, this Wednesday, from 8-11am CT. The frequency is 101.5 in Winnipeg, http://www.umfm.com/listenonline/ in the stream.

Set #1 - 8:00am - 10:00am

1. Suite Rastpanjgah: Naghde Sufi

Mahmoud Zoufonoun - violin, Amir Zoufonoun - voice, Ramin Zoufonoun - tar, Amin Zoufonoun - setar, Siamak Pouyan - tombak

Mahmoud Zoufonoun, nn

115'

(Suite of songs and instrumental pieces in the Rastpanjgah mode, the equivalent of a major scale on F.)

Set #2 - 10:00am - 11:00am

2. Une épopée spirituelle (rec. intermittently 1960-71)

Ostad Elahi - tanbur & voice

Une épopée spirituelle: L'art du luth oriental tanbur

Le chant du monde, 7741432

57:20

(Tanbur = three-string lute, "the ancestor of most [Persian] plucked, string instruments," "a sacred instrument associated with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran." A suite in four movements, assembled from a decade's worth of private recordings, traverses "the fundamental states of the soul: loss, nostalgia, separation, as well as union and return" via archaic and religious melodies, finishing with a dance tune. "The domains of the secular and sacred are not as clear-cut in eastern culture as they are in the occidental world.")

Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:

Mahmoud Zoufonoun - CDBaby

Ostad Elahi - Amazon