Speech Therapy [2020] 

4 channel sound installation, 4:08 minutes, WAV-file
 
As a child, I was treated during a long period of time for stuttering. In addition to medical treatment, speech exercises helped me pretty well. I used and did exercises from a notebook given to me by a friend of a friend from my mother... A person who suffered from stuttering and was treated in Moscow around 1985.

I used several exercises from the aforementioned notebook as a score for my 4 channel sound work, resulting in a mixture of rhythmic poetry and singing the mantras.

Speech Therapy (Stereo mix)

Another Perspective [2021]

Multichannel audio installation, duration variable, WAV

The composition was written during the Second Karabakh War, during the lockdown and curfew. My friends often carried humanitarian aid to areas bordering on the zone of escalation of the conflict. From trips they brought me bullets, which later became a musical instrument for writing this requiem.

Dedicated to all the dead and injured during these events.

Another Perspective (Version 2.2)

Torpunk [2013-2018]

C-Print on mugs, multichannel sound, 14:01, WAV

The name of the project is contamination of Azeri ‘Tor’ – ‘spider’s net’ and English ‘Web punk’, Internet subculture with specific visual products that is spread across social networks. ‘Torpunk’ is the author’s term for Dadaist digital collages, which are very popular in the blogs of young Azerbaijanis born in 1990s.

Having no logic these chaotic ‘images’ from Internet are combined with the symbolic images of pop culture and therefore, get a new meaning. To some extent torpunk is an irony towards mass Azerbaijani music scene that became unpopular one day because of the ‘death’ of national Azerbaijani TV.

Torpunk (Stereo mix)

Within m2 [2021]

4 channel audio installation, 3:43, WAV

This new work “Within Square Meters” is created to explore memory and romanticism as a response to covid-19 crises. Given the circumstances of the dangerous virus from the early stages of global lockdown, we have transformed ourselves to learning new ways of living, such as working from home, birthdays on zoom, elbow bumps, and socially distanced dates to reduce the spread of COVID-19. “Within Square Meters” manifests a meditation on how traumatic events of recent history can be read and how they have been memorialized by lack of intimacy. As coping with new normality has had a major effect on our mental health, being locked at home became unbearable due to feelings of loneliness and uncertainty, domestic violence, maintaining a healthy mentality, etc. This project brings together such subjects as the cult of overconsumption were destroyed, and the concept of the “More Money — More Ice” lifestyle would cease to be relevant.

In a place where hugging is punishable, “Within Square Meters” referencing being locked at home, aims to form an era of “New Romantic”. It leads the scene by lusciously mixing sweet music in the genres of Rock and R’n’B and embraces each sound to create a new symphony. The theory of the forthcoming “New Romantic” contrasted with the prohibition of hugging each other, this four-channel sound installation imitates “hug-and-sway” through ten vocalistic sounds. The sound work creates a virtually audio-based safe space where the warmest memories are synchronized, and harmony of sound is recreated.

Within m2 (Stereo mix)

The mix is a collection of music that has been curated to coincide with the release of Sarah Raza's Punk Orientalism: The Art of Rebellion. The mix features a range of contemporary musical styles that reflect the essence of the book, which moves through the countries of the artists mentioned in it. The main theme of the mix is oriental covers and prominent works within the culture, as well as rare tracks in the style of Skweee. 

1. Holger Czukay — Persian Love
2. NO ID
3. Easy & Center Of The Universe — Hamada (Joxaren's Afghan Jam)
4. Googoosh — Respect
5. NO ID
6. Siavash — Gole Abrishami 
7. Attarazat Addahabia — Aflana
8. Anna Vissi — Το Ξέρω Θα 'ρθεις Ξανά
9. Насиба Абдуллаева и Инструментальный Ансамбль Самарканд — Фарида
10. Googoosh — Talagh (Alek Lee Edit)
11. Atabay Cargulyyew — Nazlym
12. Гюнеш — Арманым Галды
13. Esen Gündüz — Deve Gücü
14. NO ID
15. Mohammed Hanesh — Sidi Mansour
16. Elektro Dschungel — Eminem

Image credits: 

Book's cover: Taus Makhacheva ‘Super Taus & a Camel Yasha’ (2017). Photography: Imam Guseinov. Commissioned by Leo Xu Projects.

Punk Orientalism: The Art of Rebellion (Special mix for Sara Raza)

Farhad Farzali (1989, Baku) is a sound artist who combines traditional culture, popular aesthetics, and contemporary music to address his geopolitical situation in a former Soviet Union country. He conducts anthropological research on Azerbaijans cultural context and documents its unique forms of neo-folklore. Among various exhibitions worldwide, Farzali’s art has been showcased in the 16th Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival (2014), the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (2023), and the first alternative Azerbaijani pop-up pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019), along with solo exhibitions in Baku, Venice, and Paris in different years. His works are represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in Baku, the Azerbaijan National Museum of Fine Arts, and Yarat Contemporary Art Space. Farzali currently resides and works in Berlin.

Farhad Farzali

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