17 Sonic Leak for nikel ensemble 2020

After Ramadan dinner, at home, for happy few, the day after my 25th birthday...
The GOD of Kora !

Sidiki Diabaté - home concert -  20.08.1977

Partita
for solo Violoncello

Composed for:
Juan Aguilera Cerezo

Premiered on 
January 25, 2023, Espacio Turina, Seville, Spain

II. Hop

"Repetición y diferencia" (encargo ArtHaus)

(Eva García Fernández -2022-)
para flauta, clarinete bajo, saxo alto, piano, guitarra eléctrica, violín, cello, vibráfono y batería.

Concierto – La unión hace la fuerza – ArtHaus (17 de diciembre 2023)


Ensamble ArtHaus
Flauta: Amalia Pérez
Clarinete bajo: Federico Landaburu
Piano: Marcelo Balat
Guitarra Eléctrica: Pablo Boltshauser
Violín: Grace Medina
Cello: Clement Silly
Vibráfono y batería: Bruno Lo Bianco
Dirección: Pablo Druker

Repetición y diferencia es una obra que surge a partir de cuestionamientos en torno al ser y la identidad, tanto en el ámbito personal como en el estético o artístico. La identidad no es fija, sino dinámica, se construye a través de la experiencia de la diferencia y la repetición, es esta experiencia la que nos permite relacionamos con el tiempo, con la historia y con el otro. En esta línea, es una obra que dialoga con Gilles Deleuze, Bernhard Lang y obras anteriores de la compositora. La obra es, en sí misma, un acto de repetición y diferencia.

En la obra, esta dialéctica constante entre diferencia y repetición, se expresa en diversos niveles. Por un lado hay repeticiones de determinadas configuraciones, que si bien aparentan ser “exactas”, son repeticiones “puro disfraz”, ya que a la hora de sonar y transcurrir en el tiempo, producen diferencias infinitesimales, estas diferencias se producen en el interior de la repetición.  Por otro lado, hay elementos sonoros que se repiten a lo largo de la obra, diferenciados por su relación en el contexto temporal y material, creando una repetición diferida que reactualiza el presente. De igual manera, hay algunos momentos de articulación formal en donde se escuchan diferencias cualitativas, es decir, en donde los elementos se reconfiguran y se subvierten las estructuras repetitivas preexistentes.

Repetición y diferencia

Repetición y diferencia - para ensamble - (2022)

Geneviève Liboiron, violon
Émilie Girard-Charest, violoncelle
Daniel Anez, piano

Épanchements

This essential anthology of Albanian music recorded in 1965 on the Topic label, featuring a rich palette of intense, fluid, abstract and quirky sounds, is available for Flac and MP3 download on my blog:
https://music-republic-world-traditional.blogspot.com/2024/10/folk-music-of-albania-topic-records.html

Folk Music of Albania – Topic Records – 12T154

Albanian Traditional Music Mix

Tara - Kouyate Sory Kandia

This mellifluous 1961 album, including inspired kora harp solos and performances by the Guinean Ensemble Instrumental Africain directed by the brilliant Kouyaté Sory Kandia, is available for Flac and MP3 download on my blog:
https://music-republic-world-traditional.blogspot.com/2025/03/guinea-guinee-lensemble-instrumental.html

Guinea Guinée mix Ensemble Instrumental Africain with Kouyate Sory Kandia

The haunting sound of shakuhachi flutes, played by Zen Buddhist monks in Kyoto with each note representing a resonant, meditative breath, is available for Flac and MP3 download on my blog:
https://music-republic-world-traditional.blogspot.com/2025/05/japan-japon-japanese-masterpieces-for.html

Japanese  Masterpieces for the Shakuhachi

Written for TANA Quartet during 2017 Royaumont |  ACADÉMIE VOIX NOUVELLES. Premiere on 10th September, 2017, Royaumont, France.

神秀說：「身是菩提樹，心如明鏡台，時時勤拂拭，勿使惹塵埃。」 
慧能說：「菩提本無樹，明鏡亦非台，本來無一物，何處惹塵埃。」

I imagine cleaning the big ancient Buddhist temple, but in the end I’m cleaning my soul. This piece is inspired by the two famous poems in China from one thousand year ago.

Shenxiu – 
I strive to be a tree of bodhi,
And have a heart of a clear reflecting plane,
Forever polishing it I will be,
To never let it be dusted and vain.


Huineng – 
The bodhi did not really the form of a tree possess,
A clear reflector restricted not to a plane;
When not a thing ever really mattered,
Where could dust have gathered and lain?

Cleaning The Temple (2017)

Love, Crystal and Stone
a song cycle on Selection of poems by
Federico García Lorca

I-Deseo
II-Romance de la luna, luna
III-La balada del agua del mar
IV-Arqueros
V-¡Ay!, el grito deja en el viento
VI-Casida de las palomas oscuras
VII-La granada

composed for TAK Ensemble
Performed on September 27th, 2018, Qubit Space, New York, NY

Love, Crystal and Stone: IV - Arqueros

for more information please visit: 
https://ashkanbehzadi.com

Contact: 
behzadi.ashkan@gmail.com

Ashkan Behzadi, a recipient of 2025 Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize and a 2021–2022 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition, is an Iranian-Canadian composer based in New York. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University, where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, and Georg Friedrich Haas. Prior to this, he graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s degree in composition and music theory, studying composition with Chris Paul Harman and Brian Cherney. Ashkan also holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tehran University, where, at the same time, he took composition and music theory lessons with Alireza Mashayekhi.
Ashkan’s music has been commissioned and performed by various international performers and ensembles, including Ensemble Recherche, TAK Ensemble, Oerknal Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Yarn/Wire, JACK Quartet, Grossman Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Alternance, Ensemble UnitedBerlin, Exaudi, Ekmeles, Wet Ink, Talea Ensemble, and le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM). 
His work has also been recognized with awards, artist residencies, and participation in festivals such as the Koussevitzky Foundation, Fromm Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, the Graham Sommer Second Prize, the Prix de Composition at Fontainebleau, the MacDowell Fellowship, the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Divertimento Ensemble Composers Meeting, the Dialoge Festival at Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, the Manifeste Festival at IRCAM, and the CIRMMT New Music Series.
For the 2019–2020 academic year, Ashkan Behzadi joined the Department of Music at the University of Chicago as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Center for Contemporary Composition. Since september 2023, he teaches at the Manhattan School of Music as a faculty member in Music Composition.
The issue of genre identity or genre-blurring, along with the dialectical relationship between modernist lyric poetry and contemporary music, has formed the core of Ashkan’s aesthetic concerns in recent years. Structurally, his music demonstrates a great attention to detail, conveying a miniaturist and gentle lyrical landscape. By employing techniques of allusion and pastiche as the foundation of his craft, his music ultimately seeks to invoke the collective memory of folklore music.