Showing posts with label Iranian Underground Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iranian Underground Music. Show all posts

Saturday, 13 April 2013

Persian HipHop 021 to LDN: Reveal Poison at TEDxBathUniversity



Reveal Poison


Reveal Poison is an Iranian born, London raised hip-hop artist, writer and ethnomusicologist. Growing up while travelling back and forth between such contrasting urban environments as Tehran and London has provided him with a sense of dual identity for most of his life. He is currently studying Mmus Ethnomusicology at SOAS.

www.myspace.com/revealpoison

In this TED Talk, Reveal Poison presents a short history of Iranian hip hop and Persian rap. In this account,  he talks about how underground Iranian rappers borrowed African-American rap but Iranified the tunes through employing Iranian musical instruments, tapping to old traditions of Persian poetry to write their  songs, and adding a Persian mystic colour to their music. Reveal Poison, in this presentation, speaks about the process of shaping Persian rap from the point of view of an insider, a short history of the foundation of Persian rap by a Persian-British rapper.



Saturday, 3 December 2011

"My Tehran for Sale" by Granaz Moussavi




Granaz Moussavi

Granaz Moussavi (Persian : گراناز موسوی ), (born January 26, 1974 in Tehran) is an Iranian-Australian contemporary poet, film director and screen writer. She is primarily renowned for her avant-garde poetry in the 90's. Her award winning debut feature film My Tehran for Sale is an internationally acclaimed Australian-Iranian co-production. (From Wikipedia)






My Tehran for Sale (Persian :تهران من، حراج), is an internationally acclaimed 2009 Australian-Iranian feature film written and directed by avant-garde poet turned filmmaker Granaz Moussavi, produced by Cyanfilms and starring Marzieh Vafamehr, Amir Chegini and Asha Mehrabi.

Officially selected by Toronto, Rotterdam, Pusan and several other international film festivals, this debut art-house, explores the contemporary Tehran and its underground art scene focusing on the life of a young actress who has been banned from her theater work. Struggling to pursue her passion in art as well as her secret life-style in a socially oppressed environment, Marzieh gets involved in some subsequent and unexpected events leading her to a decision-making dilemma regarding her survival and identity.

Unlike already acclaimed Iranian exotic cinema which is mostly known in the West by its portrayal of rural life, nature landscapes, as well as socio-economically deprived children struggling for survival in the outskirts of Tehran, the writer/director of My Tehran for Sale attempts to depict the middle class people and the uncertainties in their every day urban life. My Tehran for Sale has a poetic language to address critical issues such as double life of young people, women oppression, HIV issue, secret abortions, underground art, massive immigration, crisis of identity, people smuggling and also asylum seeker detention centers.

My Tehran For Sale is the winner of Independent spirit Inside Film Awards 2009. It won the jury award for best feature Film at the TriMedia Film Festival in 2010. Apart from various festivals and universities the film was screened at Museum of Modern Art MoMA in New York as well as Cinémathèque Française in Paris.

The film has been an official selection to Toronto International Film Festival TIFF (Sep 2009), Vancouver International Film Festival (Sep-Oct 2009), Busan International Film Festival BIFF(formerly PIFF) (Oct 2009), International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg (Nov 2009), Museum of Modern Art MoMA (New York, Jan 2010), International Film Festival Rotterdam (Jan 2010), International Film Festival Prague - Febiofest, 2010 Cinema Novo Film Festival Brugges 2010, CPH:PIX Copenhagen International Film Festival 2010, Guadalajara International Film Festival Mexico, Sydney Travelling Film Festival, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, Human Rights Arts and Film Festival HRAFF 2010, Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival 2010 , Global Lens USA 2010, Dialogue of Cultures Film Festival New York 2011 and SVAW Film Fesival Melbourne 2011, etc. (From Wikipedia)





Friday, 24 June 2011

GEES (TRESSES) by Mohsen Namjoo

THE NON CONFORMIST…

Namjoo’s unconventional approach to the dogma of traditional music in formal institutions pushed him out of the mainstream where he found a vast audience with his debut album Toranj. He single handedly took on the mainstream on several fronts transforming the traditional persian style into a modern rendition that attracted younger generations while simultaneously blending with western traditions of Rock and Blues. Namjoo did not stop with his great success as a musician and began to take on the dogma of traditional music lyrically. First with unconventional renditions of classical and neo-classical persian poetry and gradually with his own sophisticated, yet youthful and approachable sense of word play. There are no other examples of the Namjoo phenomenon in the contemporary Persian music scene. Given the circumstances in Iran, it is only natural that an artist like him would be lucky to find himself outside of the country, far from the hands of repression.

Mohsen Namjoo continues to connect with the hearts and souls of music lovers throughout the world. Payam Entertainment is proud to present a series of new albums in the coming months and launch a North American tour of Namjoo in “A Minor”, a major live production with his ensemble band.

Hailed as “the Bob Dylan of Iran” by the New York Times, Mohsen Namjoo is a visionary artist who speaks for and touches the souls of today’s youth. Seamlessly blending the Classical with the Modern, the Eastern with the Western, the ancient with the current, Mohsen Namjoo is a musical maverick. A Non-conformist who not only takes on the centuries old traditions of Persian music, but also his own approach to composition, style and sound. Namjoo in “A Minor” showcases his mastery as a vocalist, composer and Setar player with a full ensemble band of talented artists to create a truly unparalleled musical experience for those who think “World Music Is Not Enough”! (From Mosen Namjoo's official website) 


Mohsen Namjoo

About "Gees (Tresses)":

Squeezing the ancient tunes of traditional Iranian music out of a guitar, Mohsen Namjoo -- called by some the “Iranian Bob Dylan“, performs his one-man show in an underground concert. His music evokes a merry vibration thumping under the coat of solemnity the streets of Tehran are wrapped with. The piece that starts with a typical image in mystic Persian poetry -- the beloved’s flying black locks, with “beloved” connoting the Creator. The poetic cliché breaks into pieces when the register of the language is all of a sudden catapulted into a colloquial Farsi, of frequent chat-up lines and borrowed Western words like “blonde.” The burlesque ends with a sarcastic one-word finale lamentingly trilled in a traditional mode: “hairdryer.” The creaky frame of strict traditionalism caging the range of guitar strings and the naturalism of informal modern Farsi is symbolic of the worn wobbly social and political structures which continue to awkwardly contain the liveliness of a pragmatic people. (From "Drums of War Muffling Iranian Moderates" by Amir Azizmohammadi)




Saturday, 14 May 2011

Abdi Behravanfar


Abdi Behravanfar

I was born on June 1975. I got familiar with music from childhood, not through academic courses but by listening to Western and Persian music excessively. At 12, by watching ‘roll on ‘the song of the country band named 'Alabama’ I found that I love to play guitar. One night I dreamed a room full of guitars that a few years later my dream abecame true while nobody lived there anymore except two dogs. While loneliness at that home, still, there was sound that had not disappeared and this time through bass and guitar’s strings, big drum and two dogs.

It was the right moment that yellow angel had arrived, the sound annoyed surrounding. Police, the old friend, seemed an easy matter .Seven months before Helal Ahmar performance, I met Mustafa Yavari. He was dark and despite of being young, he seemed old apparently and inwardly. Mustafa by writing his poems and expressing a pure feeling of Rock not separated from his own real life, had great effect on me. Mustafa died 2 months after Helal Ahmar concert on his birthday.The yellow dog also left 2 months later and the black dog was stolen with his collar.

Then I left the house too and took with me the hollow trunk of quince and Agha Ghazanfar’s stone grave for remembrance. The little garden’s grass ended up, in autumn .The great silence ruled over the house for one year and then the place became a hole.

I went Tehran and worked in a construction work shop and there the song ‘Kargar e Badbakht’ was formed. At the same time I had the experience of making music for two plays named ‘what you hear is a tuneless instrument of silence’ and I also made music for a long film named ‘Yellow wall paper’.

The decade of 80’s: war, Ahangaran, joining Islamic society of school, break dance, thriller, dead dance, mixture of a noisy distressing family and my interest for playing guitar which sum up to a racket.
Considering society and family, Metal was a tranquillizer for me and ‘the edge of darkness’ by Eric Clapton suddenly exploded the whole school with Plutonium.

By the time I was 22, after getting familiar with a professor of New York Poly Techniques University, and giving me a diverse training in various fields, I bought a Guitar, the wood that seemed most necessary to me of all things and people.Mr Farhady was one of the biggest influences on my playing and the reason I bought the guitar.Rock’s screaming, another religion named Blues, Metal’s non stop crying, Country’s greenness, and depth of Folk music.

As I was studying industrial engineering in Tehran, I bought the broken accoustic guitar and Fleming Khoshghadami gave me my first guitar lessons, in Country and Blues styles. I learned the basics of playing harmonica with him too. After a while the Fleming concert was held at Farabi hall with my management which was the first Country music performance after years in Tehran.

Then I took a short term class with Kamran Yaghmayee to learn electric guitar techniques especially in Blues and Rock styles.

After getting back to Mashad in order to set up a rock band, I met different people playing music; as a result a concert was held, covering Blues and Rock songs.

After first concert, I concentrated more on group rehearsal; thus was set up a band named Mud. Because of rehearsals, the band’s members and I learned different music styles through practical experience.This life with music had great influence on the kind and way of making songs.Sometimes my own experiences combine with others’ experiences and made my music.

In my way, I learned a lot from great musicians, Rock(Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison), Blues( Son House, Muddy Waters, Sunny Boy Williamson ), Jazz(Charlie Parker, John Coltrane ),Country and Folk (Neil Young, Ian Anderson).

Getting familiar with these legends was mostly because of selling CDs for a long time. For a while I got busy with selling toilet stone, crystal palace and my everlasting friend of lonesome days.

Creating and bringing to existence comes from the life and way of living; also, in all music styles the instruments are in service of players to show musicians’ feelings toward their immediate surroundings, not in a complete vacuum of not listening and not seeing; naturally it’s not possible to react and show feeling just with knowing techniques and learning academically.

In 2006 I moved to Armenia to study Jazz; consequently I experienced playing at bars and cafes, even at metros and sidewalks; furthermore 4 concerts were held.

After getting back to Mashad, When I recorded the album named ‘Shalamroud’ , I was learning Dotar with Ali Gholamrezayee Almajughi and it was accompanied with learning the ancient folk tales of Iran which caused my closeness toward Maghami and folk music,and it had its effect on the album’ Kokheo & Kalakhet’. The two albums "Shalamroud"and Kokheo&Kalakhet" released by two production companies in the United states.The first one by Bamahang production and the second album released by Zirzamin production.Also the two CDs are available on www.cdbaby.com to buy.

I started learning Ghoshmeh with Ali Akbar Bahari Knowing Iranian Folk instruments is an opening to me toward knowing Folk and Maghami music and practically acquaintance with Bakhshies and Asheghs.Learning heart by heart from khorasan great Folk players had its effect on me, not only playing folk instruments but also using them with Rock and Blues orchestras.

Till now many concerts , and made more than 40 songs that some are recorded and some performed; also I made music for short and long films and plays.  (By Abdi Behravanfar from Abdi Behravanfar's Official Website)









Kokheo & Kalakhet