Alireza Mashayekhi/Ata Ebtekar - Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday And Today 1966-2006

Persian princes of experimentation get creative with the past

You’d be forgiven for not knowing it, but Persia has some pedigree when it comes to electronic music. Prior to the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran played host to a dazzling array of avant-garde talent, with the Shah-sponsored Shiraz Arts Festival providing a showcase for internationally acclaimed composers such as John Cage, Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen. This wellannotated collection throws the spotlight on two Iranian musicians whose music represents 40 years of Persian sonic exploration and experimentation, but looks back even further.

Alirezea Mashayekhi was born in 1940 and constructed many of the pioneering pieces included here during the Shah’s reign. Like his Western peers, Mashayekhi creates highly visceral music that seemingly spirals beyond control, but it’s when he balances noise idioms with traditional tropes, such as on the swirling ambience of Mithra, that the results are particularly satisfying.

Ebtekar, by far the younger of the two, did much of his growing up in San Francisco (he now lives in Tehran). His complex microtonal constructions reveal the influence of post-techno mechanics such as Autechre (Ebtekar has recorded for Warp Records) but, as with Mashayeki, it’s when he embeds these within a structure of Persian folk instrumentation that they get their own distinctive personality.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Sub Rosa | SR 277 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Spencer Grady
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