I was actually listening to one of his works, Ensemble Aaref Concert, right before learning he has left us.
I have spent my childhood listening to one of his albums which is my VERY most favorite album, Nava Morakab Khani. I had an old cassette player and used to flip the cassette once it reached the Avaz. The first tune is called sunrise (Tolou). I would listen to that piece and then flip the cassette to listen to Tasnif Jane Jahan (The Essence of Universe), which is a rhythmic lyrical tune in Dastgahe Nava. As a kid (I guess I was 11 or 12), I couldn't understand the beauty of the Avaz after the Sunrise tune, which is not rhythmic. It took me a couple of years to develop the taste for non-rhythmic Avaz by Mastero Shajarian accompanied by Mastero Mohammad Mousavi's Ney (Persian flute).
However, as a kid I was so intoxicated by the Sunrise piece and the The Essence of Universe tune that I couldn't stop listening to it. There is something eternal in those two songs, that have been resonating with me since then.
Couple of years later, I was able to feel the darkness of the hours before the sunrise in the Sunrise piece. Then the I would see the sun coming up from the mountains as the Daf (Persian frame drum) would start to break the darkness. I would see how the light takes over the darkness by the beats of the Daf combined with the other instruments.
Who will or could create such a heavenly music that would play with your entire existence, with every single nerves in your body such that you would see with your ears?
I feel a part of me has died as Mastero Meshkatian moved to where he was getting his heavenly inspirations. I don't think such soul can die, he was already connected to the other side.
He was silent because of the harsh situation of the artists, especially musicians in my homeland, Iran, the country of contradictions.
As I am writing this, I am singing about his other works, Bidad, Dastan, Afshari Morkab, ...
I can hear steps of the angle of death ...
Here is an interview with him ...
He is the manifestation of the following poem from Rumi,
ز خاک من اگر گندم برآید / از آن گر نان پزی مستی فزآید / خمیر و نانوا دیوانه گردد / تنورش بیت مستانه سرآید
