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I will be traveling back to the United States for about 15 days, so I will not be posting much either today or tomorrow. I leave you with a video of the magnificent setar master Hossein Alizadeh from Iran to keep your spirits up. It’s helped mine, for sure.
Respect to Midira Records for publishing this work by Tehran-based composer Shahin Souri. It is a most elegant take on ambient music. There should be a better term for this, as the genre’s name is so badly abused these days, and this seems to transcend it.
From the Little Axe Bandcamp site: “Nasim-e Sahar (The Breath of the Dawn) by Asareh Shekarchi (on tombak and āvāz), and Bahareh Fayazi (on tar) is a reinterpretation of works by master Iranian singer Reza-Qoli Mirza Zelli (1906 – 1946). This recording features a variety of modal divisions of Iranian music with poetry that speaks of both earthly and mystical love stories. Sparse and powerful,…
Alphaxone are a Tehran-based project who put out profoundly deep and lush dark ambient music.
Various Artists – Hushang Ebtehaj
Iranian poet and balladeer Hushang Ebtehaj passed away on August 10, 2022, but left an incredibly rich body of work. This compilation, released by Tehran-based record label Khosousi, brings together Ebtehaj’s best interpreters, such as Mohammad Reza Sharjarian and his son Homayoun,as well as Alireza Eftekhari, Hossein Ghavami, Mohammad Motamedi and Alireza Ghorbani. Each is a legend in his own…
Siavash Amini & Eugene Thacker – Songs for Sad Poets
Siavash Amini, an Iranian sound artist and composer, collaborates on this album with author and poet Eugene Thacker on Songs for Sad Poets, though I hear no vocals on this disc. What is on offer, however, are incredibly bleak soundscapes that range from engaging dark ambient music which settles well in headphones to abrasive post-Industrial music which tears at the eardrums in a most pleasant…
[Podcast] JazzBuzz 16: Jazz In Europe
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5WsbYnTXiSRs3yaAADkUXw?si=h8kQnOCcTjOM2l07-VrLGw Our friends at Parasounder Magazine out of Tehran offer a great introduction to jazz in Europe and Iran through their podcast, JazzBuzz. In this episode, you will hear some fine music, an interview with guitarist Ali Lotfi and more jazz notes, all in Farsi. I’m proud to support my friends and their music…
Aftab Darvishi – A Thousand Butterflies
Though I’ve tagged it as contemporary classical music, as has the artist, the latest album by Aftab Darvishi is something more than that. It is classical music melded with regional music from Iran and electronics. A stunning album.
Liraz – Azizam
Persian-Israeli pop singer Liraz will have a brand new album called Roya in October, but she’s seen fit to release an early single which is in parts psych-ish and sensual. Definitely for fans of Israeli pop and even Googoosh fans!
Tegh & Adel Poursamadi – Ima (ایما)
Tegh & Adel Poursamadi are a duo from Tehran, Iran, who are bringing a new spin to electroacoustic and experimental music. Sadly, only one track is available for the moment, but it shows how the duo meld string instruments and electronic soundscapes together seamlessly.
Various Artists – Shaytoon Records: Sounds from the Iranian Ultraverse
Shaytoon Records has released a compilation introducing some of the finest minimal techno coming out of Iran these days. The label is based in New York, but the bands come, more or less, from the motherland, though America’s Persian diaspora is well-represented. The beats are rather icy and cold, reminding me of acts like Front Line Assembly and Delerium, though bearing a more mellow hue. These…
Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian – Songs of Horaman
Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian is a Kurdish tanburist who hails from Kermanshah, in the Iranian region of Horaman. His playing reminds me of a lot of the instrumental music coming out of the Sahel, blended, naturally, with Kurdish rhythms and adding a psychedelic haze to the music. Though I’m not keen on paying €1,000 for a download, the cassette version is certainly worth a purchase. It would…
Maryam Sirvan – Feast On My Body
We have to wait eight more days to hear the complete work, but given the two tracks Maryam Sirvan has made available, this will be worth the wait. There were two artists which came to mind while listening to the tracks over and over – Tim Buckley at his most experimental, and ‘Dogs Blood Rising‘-era Current 93. This should be seen as an electroacoustic album, and would compare very favorably to…
Xerxes The Dark – Soundtrack To The Blind Owl
I feel a bit silly admitting this, but for some reason, I thought I had Soundtrack To The Blind Owl previously. Iran’s foremost dark ambient composer Xerxes The Dark has been active for many years now, and is part of a pretty amazing scene developing in one of the least likely places on Earth. Then again, with the Internet, I am expecting mind-blowing post-Industrial music to pop out of Togo or…
Crows In The Rain – You Are Dying In My Arms (The Frozen Last Gasps)
There seems to be an explosion of indie bands popping up around Iran, and this one seems to be one of the most interesting of the lot. Crows In The Rain hail from Tehran and produce a very melancholic form of post-rock mixed with neo-classical influences. Solid material.
[Music] Xerxes The Dark – Final Crises At least for my taste, there's not much better than hearing extremely deep, cavernous, and at some points, scary, black ambient.
Reza Solapitour is a dark ambient musician based out of Tehran, Iran, discovered by the best ears in experimental music, Raffaele Pezzella of Eighth Tower Records.
The album is booming, eerie and spacious, as though one had the sensation of floating in a cave. Quite a powerful release.
