this atmosphere scratches my brain just right...

Transcultural Electroacoustic Music Ensemble Berlin.
NAVA (2021)
Santur&Flute: Azin Zahedi
Live-Electronics: Ali Ostovar

Released on February 2021

All rights reserved

Nava

La Makan
This project started in Winter 2020 based on our musical ideas and classical Iranian poetry; We focused mainly on Divane_Shams by Molana because of its significant impact on our spiritual life.
We have chosen some poems from the Divan as inspiration and turned them into music by improvising on Santur using primarily Iranian traditional music scales and live-electronics, which mainly works on the instrument sound transformation.
The word La Makan, which Molana often used in his poems, literally means placeless but has a deeper existential, philosophical meaning that describes both man's loneliness in the universe and the freedom of his spirit.

Released November 30, 2021

Santur: Azin Zahedi
Live-electronics: Alireza Ostovar
Mixing & Mastering: Alireza Ostovar
Artwork & layout: Pooya Abbasian

Recorded at Institut für west-östliche Musik e.V in Berlin

© 2021 TEMBER Ensemble

all rights reserved

05 Hejran

04 Dream

03 La Makan

02 Wheel Of Time

01 Seeker

The album Land Scape is a new production of Tember Ensemble with the participation of guest musicians Pouria Solhjou Tanbur (player and vocalist) and Aysel Shahmoradi (second vocalist).

This research/production project aims to explore how "transcultural electroacoustic music" might evolve, intending to create new electroacoustic pieces exploring innovative sounds and compositional possibilities focusing on Tanbur's sounds and Kurdish maqams (melodies).

Like Tember's first album La Makan, this album is inspired by spiritual insights mainly from Iranian mystic and traditional music, especially religious Kurdish music (Ahl-e Haq) and poetry in the south Kurdish language.

The three tracks of this album subtly tell the story of a spiritual journey that each of us might experience in our own way. 

All the tracks are improvised and recorded live, based on a free interpretation of the Kurdish maqams which are minimally rearranged and mixed afterward.


01- Land Scape (Tanbur & live-electronics) 

The title "Land Scape" is a paronomasia with the words "landscape", "scaping land", and "soundscape"; it represents the atmosphere/mood of this album and the thoughts and ideas behind it.

The first track is based on a free interpretation of Sheykh Amiri's maqam.

This 23-minute track invites the listener to practice patience, have a peaceful time, and dive deep into the Land Scape sound.

02- Between Mind and Love (Tanbur, voice & live-electronics)

This piece is based on a free improvisation of another Kurdish maqam called Ghatar ( which means “continuity” in the Farsi language).
Its title and sound reflect a being in between (mind and love, logic and emotion), a struggling to let go. "Mind and Love" could be interpreted also as metaphors of matter and spirit.
This struggle between mind and love is a state that one passes in the journey of awakening and liberation.  

The lyrics are selected lines of a poem by Seyd Yaghub Mahidashti. The title of this track is inspired and taken from the poem.

Dear friends, such a beautiful moon face with eyebrows arch like an arrow; it sat in my heart, it’s not my fault!
…
It’s a life I am guarding*, and I have got nothing! But a guarding dog receives a meal for its effort.
I am confused between mind and love; I don’t know which one to listen to! Love does not give me respite and the mind does not give me a solution.
…

*taking care of love, which can be a spiritual love also.


03- Liberation (Tanbur, Santur, Voice, & live-electronics)

The story of this album ends with this piece when the heart is trapped by the love which is fully given to the beloved one. 
By the poet's opinion and in some spiritual beliefs, this is the only way of liberation. 

This piece is based on a free improvisation of another Kurdish maqam called Sarukhani and another poem from Seyd Yaghub Mahidashti.

O heart trapped, O heart you are trapped.
You are stuck in a trap.
Every happiness turns into a failure.
Whatever you do brings you disgrace.
The more medicine I give you for the pain, the more you suffer.
How long are you looking for useless sodas?
Your mind is never comfortable even for an hour.
The grief and illusion, don’t leave your life for a short moment.
Sweets become regrets for you and bitterness makes you cry.
O heart you are trapped. O heart you are trapped.

—------------------------------------------------
Credits:

Land Scape (2021/2022)
by Tember Ensemble

Tanbur & Vocals: Pouria Solhjou
Santur & Flute: Azin Zahedi
Back Vocals: Aysel Shahmoradi
Live-Electronics, Production, Mixing & Mastering: Alireza Ostovar

Artwork: Saleh Kazemi

Poems by Seyd Ya’aghub Mahidashti
Translated from Kurdish to Farsi by P. Solhjou and from Farsi to English By A. Ostovar

Liberation

Between Mind And Love

Land Scape

"Land Scape" (Live) - Quartet version

Tanbur & Vocal: Pouria Solhjou
Santur & Flute: Azin Zahedi
Percussions: Petros Tzekos
Live-Electronics, Production, Mixing & Mastering: Alireza Ostovar (A.k.a. Ali Ostovar)

Recording from a live concert at BLO Atelier in berlin on 28 May 2022.

Video: youtu.be/MrRNk7yG8_8

Album Land Scape: tember.bandcamp.com/album/land-scape

Land Scape - Quartet version (Live)

Suggestion: read the text after listening to the track. 
--
Relative Silence (2023)
By Ali Ostovar

The piece, Relative Silence, is commissioned by "Cute Community Radio" for a program in May - June 2023. The project is entitled "Hudu' Nisbi" and is named after Ziad Rahbani's Album describing a state of relative calm.
The concept is how the (relative) silence is seen and experienced by the artist in his work and practice. 
Ali Ostovar responds to the theme with a 30-minute composition with a general upside-down structure, going from noisier and more dynamic to quieter, with a few cycles inside reflecting on a few crucial subjects related to the topic and his viewpoint. 
The piece starts with the sounds of breathing, an essential part of our existence. 
In the quietest moment, we can hear our breathing sound, feel it, and be connected to it at each moment. This reflects on his meditation practice, as in meditation, it's common that the thoughts and voices in the head come up and create noise in the head. In many meditation techniques, the meditator is supposed to focus on breathing (flow and sensations) to calm the mind, focus and meditate in silence. 
That's why the piece moves to a calmer sound/state during the time. 
Silence is the absence of sound and can be a powerful and evocative force in music and other aspects of life. From the composer's point of view, silence is the absence of voices (and support) when something happens against human rights. Instead of solidarity, justice, and raising international voices, we often deal with the absence of voice, or even worse, many noises, propaganda, and distractions. By using some sonic metaphors, the composer echoes the recent socio-political movements such as Iran's ongoing revolution, "Woman Life Freedom," the tension between Palestine and Israel, Russia's war against Ukraine, demos in France, and many other fights and uncertainties in the world that can disturb us even from far and in our most quiet moments.     

All rights reserved 
Alireza Ostovar, 2023

Relative Silence (2023)

Welcome

---

Alireza Ostovar
is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, producer, sound engineer/designer, researcher, music teacher, and performance artist currently based in Berlin.
He was born in Tehran. He completed his bachelor's degree in electronic music at S. Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and his master's degree in integrative composition at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany.
He wrote his master's thesis on "TRANSCULTURAL MUSIC: A RESEARCH ABOUT INTERCULTURAL AND TRANSCULTURAL PROCESSES IN ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC" shortly after officially releasing his first album "REFLECTIONS" for quartet and live electronics. He is the founder of Transcultural Electroacoustic Music Berlin Ensemble (TEMBER).
Alireza has worked on many projects as a freelance composer, sound designer, and performance artist. (such as. Marina Abramovic "The Cleaner" , International Electroacoustic Festival of Monaco, Emufest (Rome), Ars Electronica, Maxxi Museum of Contemporary Art, Linux Audio Conference (ZKM), Urban Solar Audio Plant (USAP Berlin) the Annual Conference of the Korean Electroacoustic Music Society (KEAMSAC), the Irish Sound, Science, and Technology Convocation (ISSTC2015), the Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf, the Lichtmuseum (Unna), the Ernest Busch Hochschule Berlin, the Philharmonie Essen, the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Komische Oper Berlin and many more. 
---
Photo credit: Anton Tal

Relative Silence (2023)

Ali Ostovar

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