Artist: Parham Taheri '03
Title: Lanterns on Coast
Recording Length: 6:20
Recording Year: 2002
Archival notes: Digitized from C90 cassette found in WMBR 88.1 FM station. J-Card notes read "Parham Taheri '03, 'Lanterns on Coast' February 7 2002." Campus records indicate Taheri was a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate between 1999 and 2003.

Parham Taheri - Lanterns on Coast (2002)

Artist: Ilovelife
Title: I love life
Recording Length: 2:40
Recording Year: 2008
Format: Digitized from cassette found in WMBR 88.1 FM station, IASAC Archive shelf. J-Card notes read: 
"Ilovelife - A: I love life / B: Basement jam
Guitar: TM
Drums: MS
Recorded at Ram Ranch, Allston, April 2008”

Archival Notes: "TM” on J-Card likely refers to Taha Mahanian, who attended the Institute as an undergraduate between 2006 - 2010. Campus group archives and zines show that Taha was active in WMBR programming and live events, as well as staging independent outdoor jams with various bands he activated on campus using PA gear borrowed from friends at Berklee School of Music. Mahanian played in several punk and emo bands during his time at MIT, each with seemingly brief lifespans and was involved with local open mics as well. There are no other tapes or recordings attributed to the Ilovelife project, and the identity of “MS” on drums is unknown, but likely an MIT or Berklee collaborator. Work from Taha's projects as well as under his own name is found elsewhere throughout the IASAC tape archives. Note that the majority of Side B of this tape is taped over with an audiobook passage.

Ilovelife - I love life (2008)

Artist: IASAC Tape Workshop
Title: Exit Pts I & II
Recording Length: 3:50
Recording Year: 2009
Format: Digitized from cassette found in WMBR 88.1 FM IASAC archive shelf. J-Card notes read:
"IASAC Tape Workshop, 3rd Edition Fall 2009,
'Exit Pts I & II'
Participants: Omar Alizadeh, Lila Karim, Taha Mahanian, Charles Thompson”

Archival Notes: The IASAC Tape Workshop was an annual series of student organized musical workshops held in the Lewis Music Library throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s. Workshops revolved around collaborative jams and recording experiments intended to produce one song by the end of each session. Only two of these session recordings could be found in WMBR's IASAC box: 3rd Edition Fall 2009 and 5th Edition Spring 2011.

IASAC Tape Workshop - Exit Pts I & II (2009)

Artist: Amory Street Jazz Ensemble
Title: Improvisation for Rhodes, Guitar, MC-303
Recording Length: 3:22
Recording Year: 2000
Format: Digitized from UR-90 cassette found in WMBR 88.1 FM IASAC archive shelf. J-Card reads:
"Amory Street Jazz Ensemble, Improvisations for Rhodes, Guitar, MC-303

Guitar: Ben 
Rhodes: Arash
Synth: Parham

134 Amory Street
Friday 4 February 2000”

Archival Notes: Campus records suggest Ben and Arash Jamshidi (‘00, ‘01) along with Parham Taheri (‘03) comprised the Amory Street Jazz Ensemble. Combining mutual interests in jazz, folk, and electronics, the trio made a number of home and studio recordings that are archived in the Walker Memorial Basement Radio station. It is unclear what type of building occupied 134 Amory Street at the time. Located in the Inman Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the plot is now (2024) a parking lot owned by the Cambridge Housing Authority.

Amory Street Jazz Ensemble - Improvisation For Rhodes, Guitar, MC-303 (2000)

Artist: Paria
Title: Kamancheh
Recording Length: 2:21
Recording Year: 2014
Format: 16-Bit WAV

Archival Notes: Found on USB drive labeled 'IASAC' in the collective's in Walker Memorial Basement Radio archive box. Track metadata states that the file was create 9/24/2014. No additional information or tracks by Paria are found in the USB drive but campus records suggest the artist could Paria Hafezi (BS Brain and Cognitive Sciences '18). The Iranian bowed string instrument kamancheh can be heard on this track, as well as the two-stringed lute known as dutar.

Paria - Kamancheh (2014)

The Iranian American Student Audio Collective (IASAC) is an MIT student organization active intermittently from 2000 to the present. Reactivated in Fall 2024, the IASAC archival initiative is an ongoing student-led effort to source, collate, archive, digitize, and publish audio recordings from cassette tape, CD, and digital repositories of MIT's Walker Memorial Basement Radio (WMBR 88.1 FM), as well as through interpersonal outreach with alumni, current students, and other collective affiliates. The mission of this project is to share with the world the sonic expressions of Iranian students at MIT over nearly thirty years.

Physical releases and live performances to be announced!

Meetings every Monday at 5:00 PM in E15-120E

MIT Iranian American Student Audio Collective

Popular tracks