Grand Performances Presents Fared Shafinury - August 24th, 8pm - 350 S. Grand Ave. - California Plaza! free to the public!

Interview with Yatrika Shah-Rais of Global Village

The branches above danced wild. At times scratching and whisping the desert floor around me. I sat staring into the distance, aimlessly. The horizon thickened with clouds. As darkness creeped in, I could feel a heated rush of vulnerability pour down my spine - The world was changing around me, and I began to ponder what other lone wonderers would have done in a similar situation. If only I could fly away like the sparrows.  

Pendar Trip

Fared Shafinury
song title: Skies Within Your Eyes
album: Behind the Seas
lyrics: A poem by the late Forough Farrokhzad

Skies Within Your Eyes

FARED SHAFINURY
SONG TITLE: BARAFSHAN
ALBUM: BEHIND THE SEAS
Barafshan can be heard on Fared Shafinury's newly released full length album BEHIND THE SEAS. It's a story of love, triumph, humanity - taking the listener from track 1 to track 12 feeling euphoric and light - yet deep and immense - A masterpiece of contemporary Persian classical music. - WP.
Available today on ITUNES ,CD Baby and Amazon!!!!

Barafshan

Fared Shafinury
song: bidar sho
album: Behind the Seas
Available now on Itunes, CDbaby, Amazon


Bidar sho - wake up

Fared Shafinury 
Song: Behind the Seas
Poem: Sohrab Sepehri 
Album: Behind the Seas
now available on itunes, amazon, cdbaby
www.Faredshafinury.com


Poshte Daryaha - Behind the Seas

Artist: Fared Shafinury
Album: Into the Night 
Song: Dusty Grape Leaves

Dusty Grape Leaves

title: Into the Night
album: Into the Night
artist: Fared Shafinury

Into the Night

Fared Shafinury
Album: Into the Night
Song: So in Love

So In Love - Fared Shafinury

Eye Light - Gelareh

improvisation in Orinda, Ca 2012
Setar/electronics - Fared Shafinury
Violin - Roberto Riggio


Khojaste

I was hanging out with a few good friends on the side of a cliff below Austin's Mount. Bonnell.  We heard a guitarist playing from above us, and I began to randomly sing as the sun was setting. My brother Rahmin recorded the whole thing, I took it to Garageband of course and gave the 3 minute improvisation some life.  A snippet in time of my daily life I call it :) love, fs

Beneath the Rain

"I ate an Apple this morning & the core was left on the table. After awhile I noticed how the white flesh had turned brown, oxidizing in a matter of moments." - 7/2/08 Tehran
setar - Fared Shafinury
guitar - Jason Mckenzie 


Mellow Meadows

"Nobody was able to calm her crazy bones." - 6/28/07 Tehran

Anderson Council

I met John Murphy @ Esalen in the Hot Springs and we spoke to one another in a language known as music.  He spoke through the Harmonica, I spoke through the Setar.  Here he has bestowed upon Mr. Mckenzie & I a track of Harmonica, which Jason has mixed into the improvisational piece.  He has also added a tabla track! enjoy!

Mellow Meadows ft. John Murphy

Here is a recording of the very first time, back in November of 2012, that I sat with Maestro Indrajit Banerjee & Jason Mckenzie. Recorded by Carles Zanetti, using a simple room mic in a small room on Garageband. This is just to give you a taste of what is to come soon! See you on the 13th of April, 2013!

First Encounter

گذر - Passage

Recorded back in the day, for the movie Khereft Khuneh! This was for the scene in the movie where 3 people were trapped inside a clay brick hut, starving to death. I'll post up the movie sometime! 

توهم - Hallucination

Mansour Tehrani's Yar-e Dabestani (My Childhood Companion) was championed as a popular lyrical protest during the 70's in the streets of Tehran. Words once used against the tyranny of the Shah were again used in the streets of Tehran in the summer of 2009.  Here is my rendition of it. 

My Childhood Companion

Here is a one shot recording of one of the first times that Indrajit Banerjee & I got together to record live with Jason Mckenzie.  It's an alop that's both classical and yet not so classical. I've gone ahead and added a few tracks of abstract bob moog 1970's vintage electronica. This sample, from a much larger jam session, was recorded by Carles Zanetti! It's the type of musical landscape I imagine for the Setar/Sitar Project.  

Chaotic Bliss اشفتگي و سعادت

Recorded on the fly last night, all one-shot tracks on a simple garageband device. Vocals - Bia Ali

Last Night

 Fared Shafinury – Much of the “fusion music’ pumped out by a new
generation of bands in Iran transitions from East to west, writing Farsi
lyrics onto non-Iranian genres like rock, jazz, and country. While the results
can be novel and crowd-pleasing, the mix often feels more like an over lay
of disparate elements than a seamless, authentic form of art. This is what
makes the sound of Iranian-American musician Fared Shafinury stand out
from his contemporaries.

Born in a small town along the Gulf of Mexico, and classically trained on
the cello, Shafinury later unearthed a deep-rooted love for the music of his
parents’ homeland – the traditional vocal/instrumental repertoire known as
the radiff. His compositions thus move against the current, by retracing
the arc from West to East. In his hands, the setar, an Eastern cousin
of the guitar, and Fared’s virtuoso specialty, yearns not for a departure
from Iranian form nor the emulation of Western genres, but arrival at the
point where binaries and boundaries bleed and blend until they dissolve
completely.

Shafinury now lives in the Bay Area recording his 3rd album, as well
as composing sound tracks for various films. He has performed all
across the country, selling out prestigious concert halls. In 2009, Fared
Shafinury was the featured artist at the Iranian Alliances Across Borders
International conference on the Iranian Diaspora. In 2010, he was featured
at the Iranian.com music festival, performing at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Shafinury also has extensive knowledge of composing and arranging for
choreographies. In 2005, Fared Shafinury has had the privilege of studying under
some of Iran’s most prominent masters: including: Ostad Mozaffari, Ostad
Zoghadr, Ostad Shaari, Ostad Soukuti, and Ostad Mohammad Reza Lotfi.
Shafinury’s music is the progeny of his talent, passion, and environments –
producing a sound that simultaneously singular in character and universal
in appeal. 

FaredShafinury

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