Author Archives: sixpillarstopersia

Six Pillars – we mean it when we say experimental.

This is the most work we’ve ever had to do for a show: collating the sparse and little known threads of modern Persian music. Mostly Persian music is tripe, with little but the language or a few musical notes to differentiate it from other trash music. In fact so abundant are the cheap imitations by Middle Easterners, that Middle Eastern pop, hip hop, house and dance have developed into their own sub genres and even spawned a stereotpye anti-appreciation movement (Kill Iranian Kitsch)...

Happily however, we do not linger on that here, instead we leap from Jew’s harp to percussive experiments to nu-fusion jazz: we’ve searched far and wide to bring you some of the best sounds in alternative Iranian modern music. Listen out for the distinct Iranian vocal technique employed by Mamak Khadem. Also listen out for the throat sound experiments with a Jew’s harp (Morteza Esmaili pictured) and the wonderful Sitar piece by Omid, (but he should have called it Se tar).

Thanks to all the artists, who gave permission for this podcast.

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Six Pillars – Animating Iran: Maryam Mohajer

Animation can often do what film cannot. Maryam has found her metier in animation and even though she only graduated a short while ago, she has already been shown in several international galleries and completed a residency in Austria.Maryam’s films touch on, amongst other things, the innocence of youth, the trivia of everyday life in an Iranian setting of peaceful times at war. She seems to use animation to blot out landscapes or surrounding distractions to the action that goes on between her characters. She also using a technique that keeps roughly drawn lines in constant agitation, as if the mind was up there on screen also and her simple style both in text and drawing contrasts with the complexity of the situations depicted.

We listen to music by Abjeez (slang for sister in Persian), discuss living away from your home town, animation as a trade, films in general, “The Girl With the Short Hair” Maryam’s film and more.

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Six Pillars – Lekonik, Composing from Film

Clever boy Lekonik (Amir Heshmati) has his finger in several musical pies. He can make beats as well as the next man but uses his film background to create truly singular tracks that make your ears prick up as soon as you hear them.

One of those tracks is played here: “Kitchen” where each screen shot corresponds to the sound it produced until the sounds layer up to make an intriguing and singular piece.

Amir discusses his current project based on his home town Shiraz in Iran, his family, Iranian culture and film and we are treated to four of tracks.

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Six Pillars – Muslim Girls in Music

Propelled by the story of Deeyah (aka the Muslim Madonna) and her encouragement of other Muslim girls to make music, Jus1Jam came all the way from Bradford for a discussion on being a Muslim and a musician at the same time, and to read her lyrics as poetry.

Deeyah’s career caused a lot of trouble and is subsequently conferred to the fringes of media attention. People working with Deeyah have been known to abandon their projects for unexplained reasons, and she herself has received death threats and been forced underground. This begs the question: how do Muslim girls with a leaning towards the arts balance their beliefs and their talents, in a western setting where other girls are ‘free’ to express themselves and perform without fear?

Jus1Jam recites her poetry for us in the studio, discusses being a muslim liberal and growing up in Muslim-heavy Bradford.

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Six Pillars – Inside the Mind of Clive Collier

A studio visit by Director of the film company Storm Creation Ltd: Clive Collier. Grandson and great-grandson of two Iranian poet laureates under the Shah, Clive discusses his milestone work where he single-handedly put together Sanctuary the only documentary on Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance and his present project the release Eureka: The Mind of Edgar Allen Poe.

The show features some early work on the soundtracks to the Poe project, which capture both the Gothic complexities of Poe’s mind and the era in which he lived.

Clive is also technical editor of Showreel magazine, which we did not have time to cover. We hope he will return with translations of his forefather’s poetry, more stories and more work on Allen Poe which knowing Clive, will be insightful, intuitive and inspiring.

This show was recorded live at Resonancefm studios, London on Dec 10th 2008, and was produced and presented by Fari Bradley.

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Six Pillars – Women and Sex in Iran

Six Pillars producer Fari Bradley interviews Dr Pari Esfandiari, the Editor-in-Chief of Irandokht. Entrepreneur business woman, Dr Esfandiari PhD, has built up a massive readership and a vital forum for Iranian women all over the world (dokhtar means daughter in Farsi). The site is an independent, non-partisan but politically engaged site that allows women to communicate and promote peace through understanding. It’s such a worthy cause that Irandokht is among 34 websites showcased by UNESCO.

Dr Esfandiari tells Fari about her recent article ‘Sex in Iran’ which she wrote with co-writer Richard Buskin for Playboy Magazine. This telling article is about lifestyles in contemporary Iran and the extent of social problems that exist therein.

The basis of the article is the news that a well renowned actress of some esteem had either made with her ex-boyfriend or been body-doubled in a home made video tape involving copious of sex and nudity. The tape made a ridiculous amount of money on the black market and the poor girl’s career and life hangs in the balance. Dr. Esfandiari explained that the popularity of the DVD reveals a society that is unsure of its own values. She points out the chauvinism that exists in Iranian culture, as most people sympathised with Madame X only after they saw her portrayed as a victim. The very idea of a woman enjoying sex is seems threatening.

The article also highlights the polarity and divides in society in general on this topic, with permissive and extremist views on women’s roles, illustrated by two completely polarized stories: a group of young girls fearing their families reaction were said to have committed group suicide after being featured on internet dancing with revealing cloths and bare hair, and reports of private parties where guests drink, socialize and couple off at the end of the evening.

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Six Pillars – Persian Avant Garde Music 1960’s

Mashayekhi’s work is woefully unknown to us the in the west, despite his completely unique and innovative methods and career that spans back to a pre-Shah Iran. From score writing to painting Mashayekhhi’s work reflects the unique way he thinks. Many thanks to Sub-Rosa Records for allowing us to podcast these pieces.

We also hear a short interview with artist Anahita Rezvani on her work, recently shown here at the Paraava gallery. She is interviewed at our request by her friend, who remains unnamed.
This show was produced and presented by Fari Bradley and broadcast from the Resonancefm studios in 2007.

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Six Pillars: Sufism for Islam Awareness Week

Leading Sufi spokesman Nihat Tsolak delivers a demystifying session on Sufism at host Fari Bradley’s request. As 2007 Islam Awareness Week falls on Sufi poet Rumi’s 800th Birthday, events around London stirred up renewed interest in this rebel mystic.  The show contains excerpts of the play ‘Rumi, Unveil the Sun’ and an interview with a leading actor and the director.   Fari discusses with Nihat whether one might be a Christian or gay Sufi and which historical figures display Sufi characteristics despite never having heard of this wayward branch of Islam.

With so much bad press recently, Sufism is Islam’s best PR. For while Islam is perceived as rigid and intolerant, Sufism is flexible and accepting. where Islam has a fixed set of rituals, Sufism is instinctive and driven by the individuals own relationship with the divine, a self- empowering concept for which many Sufis were originally martyred.

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Six Pillars – Minou Norouzi and Psychoanalytical Film

Some truths about Austria from film maker Minou Norouzi. With psychoanalytical elements to her films amongst her themes are misplaced femininity and incubated desire, within the context of a budding male sexual revolution that she sees happening.Some of her short films are viewable on her site, of which there is much to think about. Some contain minimal action and little text with the main character frozen in a moving landscape. What does she keep from us, what does the film refuse to offer up and by so doing, lay bare about our expectations as viewers?

A unique woman, she says she is neither Iranian nor Austrian, and so we nudge her on her way back to her grandfather’s point of origin; to the town where people are either mad, or genius.

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Six Pillars: Maz Jobrani’s “Axis of Evil Comedy Tour”

How we conjured an American we spotted on a clip on Youtube USA, into the London studio. The Merchant of Mirth, the Fakir of Middle Eastern Ridicule…. Maz Jobrani, arrives in UK, swings by the studio and announces live on air what he’s just found out: he’s going to be a dad for the first time. Between anecdotes about Iranian family, the US comedy circuit and what Americans don’t know, we hear what it’s like being an Iranian on the west coast.

This programme was recorded at the Resonance104.4fm studios on November 5th 2007. Produced and presented by Fari Bradley, Six Pillars to Persia is on Mondays at 1.30pm

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