context
body & environment
This project navigates through identity and aesthetics. Identity as in having a dual nationality background. Being raised in an Iranian family and simultaneously brought up in a Danish environment outside my family home. Inside, I was Iranian; stepping out, I was Danish. The complex story of a person finding their identity by moving towards something and away from something else is common. Navigating this through identity and nationality is a journey many second-generation immigrants experience today. Every day further into this project, I’m discovering that despite digitalization and the notion that everything is possible, we are still grappling with how our bodies process and what we identify with.
I attended a talk about Palestinian heritage in the face of Israel's ongoing efforts in the war. The primary message was to urge young Palestinians to educate the next generations about their identity and what Palestine once was.
Emotionally, I connected this to the Iran that used to be. Not that Iran's situation can be compared to Palestine's, but the sense of loss and the need to preserve cultural identity resonated deeply.
The cultural exchange between Iran and the West during the time of Ali-Naqi Vaziri, a prominent figure who integrated Western classical music methods into Persian music, is a significant historical moment. Vaziri introduced equal temperament, making the Iranian musical scale radif available in European notation and enabling a dialogue between the two cultures. His theories were heavily rejected when the Islamic Republic came into power, halting the cultural dialogue as the regime had no interest in European influence in Iran.
Now, however, new connections are being built between Iran and the European music scenes. Hence, the title of this project: "a new kind of Vaziri."
Engaging in conversations with Khyam Allami about a kind of non-western electronic music, his frustration with the colonization of music traditions by the West becomes evident. His work, “De-colonizing Electronic Music,” has heightened awareness about the foundational structures in electronic music, particularly the repressed possibilities of using scales beyond the equal 12-tone system.
The Western method of categorizing sounds and music into specific methods and genres, such as “musique concrète” and “ambient music,” has advanced the field in a manner that highlights the individuals who coined these terms as pioneers. This is not to diminish the contributions of Pierre Schaeffer, who was indeed a great composer, innovator and entrepreneur in his time. However, it’s important to acknowledge Halim El-Dabh, who was working with musique concrète techniques four years before Schaeffer. El-Dabh, operating in Cairo, lacked the same infrastructure that was available in post-war France, where economic funding and interest in electronic music were significantly greater[1] .
Today, the electronic music community is acutely aware of these historical inequities. With the advent of the worldwide web, we are witnessing a thriving electronic music scene in Cairo. Artists like Zuli, who founded the label Kairo is Koming, embody the pride of their city and its place in electronic music history, extending their influence on the Western market where economic support through gigs, record sales, and residencies is more established.
The momentum of non-western electronic music has been flourishing since the late 2010s. Alongside the Egyptian movement, there are significant contributions from Uganda's Nyege Nyege, Portugal's Principé (focusing mainly on black Portuguese artists from Lisbon’s suburbs, projects, and slums[2]), and the burgeoning Iranian electronic music scene. Composers like Ash Koosha and Sote are demonstrating to the Western music industry the sonic potential of Persian musical instruments combined with their hyper[3] -digital synthetic sound designs.
[1] And might not have been interested in pursuing the same kind of career as Schaeffer
[2] https://principediscos.bandcamp.com/ – Their own info: PRÍNCIPE is a record label based in Lisbon, Portugal. It is fully dedicated to releasing 100% real contemporary dance music coming out of this city, its suburbs, projects & slums. New sounds, forms and structures with their own set of poetics and cultural identity.
[3] Meaning ’’very’’ or "a lot"
In the landscape of late capitalism, the commodification of minority issues presents an exotic paradox. On one hand, the visibility of these issues ostensibly signals progress, a breaking of silence around previously marginalized voices. Yet, this very visibility is often co-opted by market forces, transforming genuine struggles into fashionable commodities.
Given that many artists emerge from positions of privilege[1], Western media are constantly searching for something authentic (in Danish: ægte). Comparable to sports, as they have long served as a stage for these narratives, with Brazilian football players being discovered and celebrated for years.
Now, with the democratization of electronic music, these stories are finding new spaces within electronic music communities. It's a time of transition. The challenge is to celebrate and elevate these diverse voices without reducing them to mere exoticism or novelty.
The main narrative surrounding Iranian electronic music pioneers, such as Alireza Mashayekhi, often highlights their discovery and adaptation of Western technologies to create their work. Early compositions blended Western electronic methods with Persian classical and traditional music, a trend that continues today. However, the early paradigm of Iranian electronic music is undergoing a change, with a significant amount of music now emerging directly from Iran. These new works do not necessarily incorporate Iranian scales or instrumentation, but their framing and context make them distinctly Iranian.
Titles like “Hardcore Sounds from Tehran”[1] and “Hormoz Noise” situate the listener within the capital megacity of Tehran and the small island of Hormoz, respectively. This locational narrative shifts the perspective, emphasizing that while Iranian artists may use Western digital audio workstations, the creative process is rooted in Iran. Similar to the Egyptian electronic music scene, Iranian music is also economically intertwined with the European electronic music market.
Prominent figures in what the West refers to as "Persian electronic music" include those who have successfully navigated this cross-cultural space. Alireza Mashayekhi, one of Iran's first avant-garde composers, created documented early electronic works that have garnered a cult following, especially through the internet. Dariush Dolat-Shahi’s explorations with the tar and modular synthesizers further exemplify this unique intersection of traditional Persian instruments and modern electronic music techniques.
attempts at
modernizing Iran – history of complex modernization
Iran is a special case in the Middle East. Before the revolution, Iran felt like a part of Western culture. With the Shah coming in from Switzerland and the Shah’s wife curating the Shiraz Arts Festival, which featured artists like John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Xenakis, and Cunningham, Iran was meticulous about presenting itself to the West.
The earlier Queen of Iran exemplified this sentiment, stating that they did not see themselves as belonging to either the Western or Eastern binary categories.
The phrase "moving Iran into the 20th century" is frequently used, but as Nixon once remarked, "the Shah’s opponents have moved the country right back to the dark ages."
One significant reason the Shah lost power was because of what some called "the most expensive party ever," a lavish event attended by nearly every world leader, including Queen Ingrid and King Frederik of Denmark.
Reza Shah Pahlavi, the father of the last Shah, was educated in Western institutions, as were his ministers. Their mission was modernity and Westernization, coupled with a return to ancient roots. This cultural revival was a political agenda. Reza Shah Pahlavi, who came into power via coup d’état, aimed to modernize Persia, which he renamed Iran, meaning “land of Aryans.” He built railways across the country, made education free for both males and females, and removed the veil from obligatory female wear. This period is one of the most proudly remembered by exiled Iranians. However, Reza Shah Pahlavi's tenure ended partly due to his perceived closeness with Hitler.
I emphasize this political history to illustrate Iran's past need for dialogue with the world, encompassing the West, East, and Africa. Iran saw itself as a center of the world, open to exchange and cultural development. The country has experienced, over the last 44 years, Iranians returning from the West, bringing with them Western influences, and attempting to "move it forward" from times where it was perceived to be "standing still."
This period, and the continuing complexities of identity it involves, remains a significant chapter in Iran's history.
"...which could be a way to connect a bridge between our history and culture of which we were very proud of. With a future desired and deserved. The connecting mechanism generally generally referred to as modernization was a confusing term as it was and still is, often misconstrued as westernization. We of course admired all the West had achieved in science, technology, and arts. We tried to learn and absorb as much as we could, but our idea of the future wasn’t to be western or westernized. Just as it wasn’t to be eastern or easternized"
"Thus, we approach Iranian art as a living growing exercise in creativity rooted in our magnificent ancient past, but free to look for the future and breath and develop openly in contact with the best in the world. The Shiraz Arts Festival became the most famous example of this approach.”
outtakes from Queen Farah's speech at the asia society conference in NY 2013
Engaging with the politics of music throughout this project has been eye-opening. The current discussions around decolonization and the historical ties of colonization in music and culture have made me reflect deeply. In this context, my own identity has become increasingly ambiguous, leading me to question my position.
Am I a composer or an activist?
A political activist, in cultural perspective, is someone who uses cultural tools to challenge and shift public discourse and cultural norms around cultural and political issues. You can clearly say my mentor Khyam Allami has used his voice very clearly about his worries and the electronic music community have listened.
His work collaboration with CTM festival[1] was based on designing a browser based digital audio workstation focusing on microtonal tunings. The initiative sparked an ongoing debate about the repressed possibilities in music software. It has even motivated major companies like Ableton to make microtonal tunings more accessible than ever in their software design.[2]
With each step deeper into the subject, my understanding of the politics around the subject of cultural colonization grew, but the momentum of my music-making clearly waned. At one point, even importing a sound from a Persian instrument into my Western DAW evoked a sense of shame and guilt.
I needed to have this dialogue with myself and confront this nonproductive guilt in me. So I decided to split my work in two methods.