Sonic Liberation Front: in Solidarity with Iran

Pouya Ehsaei's debut album on Entracte records. Released on vinyl only in 2014

Here are the vinyl's notes and a few reviews to go with it: 

There, Pouya Ehsaei’s debut album,
processes samples of traditional Iranian
music to reveal the rage hidden beneath
its melancholia.

 

Boomkat:

Engrossing debut album from Iranian sound artist, Pouya Ehsaei, sublimating samples of traditional Iranian music to “reveal the rage hidden beneath its melancholia.” It was produced in 2010, using fractured and brutally processed instrumentation indigenous to Iran to isolate a palpable feeling of tension articulated with a timbre unique to the artist’s background. 
In the course of its six pieces, we perceive a stark and grinding sadness from his aerated arrangements, gleaning elusive emotions from a rich, whisked swirl of glistening tones that remain dangerously high in the mix, sustaining and imparting a perpetually heightened state of sensitivity that either makes each ornate shimmer and glisten cut like a piano string garotte, or accentuates the feeling of frustrated detachment and confusion in the two pieces employing Ahmad Shamliu’s indecipherable reading of poems written whilst in prison in 1954. As listeners, we’ve long been drawn to the deep melancholy of recordings created or informed by this region, from Muslimgauze to Honest Jon’s archival collections, thru to recordings by Dariush Dolat-Shahi or Touch’s Sohrab. Understandably, we’d file There in that precious pile.

There

1st episode of my new show on Radio Alhara راديو الحارة "From the Lips on the Moon" aired on 06.07.2021. Thanks to Tara Fatehi for translating and narrating this episode and to Amin Nikoukar for the design:

"From the Lips to the Moon" is Pouya Ehsaei's take on an old tradition of Ashiks and Bakhshi's in Azarbayjan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Iran, and other countries in that region. Ashiks and Bakhshies are musicians and storytellers, they tell a simple story, sing, and play on their saz.

The text of tonight's story is written by Pouya Ehsaei based on The Shark, a tale from Mohammad Reza Safdari's book "Chelgisoo", a collection of folkloric takes from South of Iran. The title of the series “From the lips to the moon” is also inspired by Safdari’s book. In the introduction of "Chelgisoo", he describes the voice of those who tell these timeless tales as “a sound that travels from their lips to the moon and from there to the ears of a child.”

From the Lips to the Moon will be aired first Tuesdays of the month on Radio Alhara 11pm London Time

From The Lips To The Moon: The Shark

This is track #4 from the album There. 

The sounds produced by processing samples from traditional and folkloric  music of Iran to make a rich and tense musical space. The samples are processed brutally and fractured totally in order to build up a strong tension.
The voice is from a recording of Ahmad Shamlu reading one of his poems in 1990 which is written in when he was in prison 1954. It is a letter to his father and it's called   'Letter to Father' 'نامه به پدر'.

The album is long waiting to be published by Entr'acte, hope it will be out Feb 2014.

Pouya Ehsaei - There #4

Roody - Sonic Liberation Front: in Solidarity with Iran

Sanaz - Sonic Liberation Front: in Solidarity with Iran

Gisou Golshani - Sonic Liberation Front: in Solidarity with Iran

XEEN - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Sahar Homami - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Guess Lou - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

KUCHULU - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Anahita Shamsaei - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Rojin Sharafi - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Mona Matbou Riahi - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

AIDA - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Nesa Azadikhah - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

ROSHA - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Foori Sonic - Sonic Liberation Front in Solidarity with Iran

Pouya Ehsaei's debut album on Entracte records. Released on vinyl only in 2014

There #6

There #5

There #4

There #3

There #2

There #1

Further Grains: Eternity is Now w/ zel x qiq @radioalhara

A mix reflecting on the emotions, thoughts and scenes we are experiencing.

“Eternity is Now is a collection of music and sounds, affecting us with strength and beauty of resistance. Eternity is Now is the seemingly endless enduring act for change, with time being chopped and stretched into countless units of now. Music reminds us of our bodies and what we are fighting for.

zel x qiq is an abolitionist and tells stories of sensitive hearing and seeing. In mixes, they follow to deconstruct what constructs the late late capitalist subject’s reality.”

Further Grains is a show on Radio Alhara by Pouya Ehasei where he invites his fellow Iranian musicians and friends to make mixes for Radio

Tracklist:
Sarah Davachi - Keep Outside The Night
Kayhan Kalhor  - Silent City شهر خاموش
Stormtrap Asifeh/Darla Smoking - Damar
Radio Palestine: Sounds Of The Eastern Mediterranean - Electricairo / Tangental Psychedelico 
Mohammed el-Kurd @ The Dig
Abdallah Dabbas - ThhhhhhhawRA
Berlin Demonstration "no weapon for genocide" 10.Dec 2023
Kirdec - It's Genocide
Aho Ssan feat. Nicolas Jaar - Le Tremblement
Palästina alnakba documentary min 44. 1936
fieldrecording Berlin Gesundbrunnen park  
Julmud جُلْمود - Roh Al Nahrain روح النهرين 
sagzi - nokhos teen 
Berlin Demonstration "no weapon for genocide" 10.Dec 2023
Levni/Darla Smoking - Smooth Sail
تمرین گروه دف نوازان هیوا اصفهان ⧸ Daf navazane Hiva
LORKE - Armenian folk dance
Supreme Figur/Darla Smoking - Karafaki Mon Amour
Ivy Sole - Otherside
يا نسيم الريح أداء أوركسترا غزة Orchestra Gaza
kids in Gaza singing via @ mariambarghouti 14.nov 2023
Lament (Papa New Guinea) - The Recordings of Charles Duvelle- Disques OCORA & Collection PROPHET
Mohammed el-Kurd @ The Dig 
"I am you" NYC Vigil Honors Palestinian Poet Dr. Refaat Alareer
"I will remain steadfast on my land, until the last blood drop in my soul" - little girl from Gaza

Eternity is Now w/ zel x qiq

Live in Rymer (Part of the Strange Vibration concert) - Dec 2010 

Live In Rymer (2010)

Pouya Ehsaei is an experimental live musician, sound designer, producer, curator and radio host working as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians and artists. He is the leader of the band Ariwo and the figure behind the electronic and live music club night Parasang. Pouya’s practice involves experimenting with different compositional and sound synthesis techniques to create a sonic passage through hypnotic soundscapes, industrial beats, intricate sound miniatures, epic soundscapes, fractal polymeric rhythms and pulsating hard hitting sub frequencies. Pouya has performed at Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre and the Royal Academy of Arts as well as several festivals including Montreux Jazz Festival, Womex, Womad and Fusion.

Pouya Ehsaei

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks