Resonance FM Podcasts » Promos

The Art of Improvisation

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:35:18 +0000

Cousins Adib (UK) and Mehdi Rostami (Iran) take the closeness of their family ties into the realm of improvisation, where trust and understanding between musicians is paramount to success. Prior to a London performance we talk to them in the studio about the preparatory process for an improvising musician, the instruments they play – the relatively new shurangiz - and their ambitions for the future of their duo, split as they are between Iran and UK.

We sample some of their sublime music in the show, but nothing can compare to a live performance where the players literally take you on the ‘journey’ with them. Buy the CD here.

Six Pillars – A Lebanese State of Mind

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 27 May 2011 06:19:25 +0000

Curator of the 2010 Lebanon Pavilion at Venice Biennial, writer and curator Georges Rabbath lays out ‘A Plot for A Biennial’, an interactive happening following Lebanon’s official retraction from the Venice Biennial, 11.

At the Sharjah Art Foundation, Georges explains how T H E S T A T E O F M I N D project at this year’s biennial will make a transferable collection of artworks for any place where the world of art has become, he quotes ‘a zoo’.

Free Lab Radio – My Kind of Climate

sixpillarstopersia — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 11:27:11 +0000

The first half of Free Lab Radio, July 26th 2011 a mid-summer’s Saturday night in the studio. Tracks that lead us to gently dance off the heat at varying paces. Tracks like ‘Naturally Stoned’, ‘Call Me Hung Up’, ‘You’re My Kind of Climate’ and ‘Holiday in Congo’ an even one by the queen of lusty lament: Janis Joplin. Have a listen…

Free Lab Radio – My Kind Of Climate by Fari on Mixcloud

Six Pillars – Wael Shawky

sixpillarstopersia — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:18:46 +0000

Ahead of his forthcoming talk at Delfina Foundation we’ve pulled out some audio from Emirates March Meeting 2011 where Wael presented his work on the crusades from an eastern perspective, as depicted through marionettes on film. One part of the quartet of film retraces events unfolding in the four years between (1096-1099) and which played a key role in subsequent historical developments, shaking to the core the Arab world and its relations with the West. Shawky was somehow given permission to use 200-year-old marionettes from the Lupi collection in Turin and was inspired by The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf, written in 1986. The book by Maalouf, a Lebanese writer, examines the historical points of the Crusades by going back to Arab historians and their writings, most of which have never been considered by historians in the West, although Maalouf does also reference some of the most acknowledged Western sources and studies and aim to give, finally, a balanced view to this too-long-one-sided episode in the history of humankind. Wael lives and work in Egypt.

Six Pillars – Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Shirin Ebadi

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:35:42 +0000

Dr Shirin Ebadi, the First Iranian woman, indeed Middle Eastern woman, to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, spoke at SOAS on 2 February 2011 on ‘The Role of Women in Promoting Peace in the Middle East’.

Here she discusses the women’s movement in Iran and the difficulties she herself has faced in standing up for human rights in Iran.

This was originally broadcast on Six Pillars to Persia as part of a longer show, on Resonance 104.4fm.

Thanks to Marina Khatibi and Tom the engineer.

International Women’s Day March – London 2011

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:34:14 +0000

Women for Women organised a march from the Millenium bridge to Royal Festival Hall led by Annie Lennox. Fari Bradley spoke to some of the groups and individuals taking part.

Groups featured are: The Soroptimists, London Feminist Network, Refugee Council, Afghan Aid and Object.

This podcast also includes the speeches which took place at the end of the march, with Annie Lennox, Bianca Jagger, Lynne Featherstone (someone is shouting “get off the fence!” during this!), the highest positioned woman on the Afghanistan Refugee Council in Afghanistan, Helen Pankhurst from Care International (descendant of Emmeline), Berra Kabarungi, Natasha Walter, Judith Wanga, Liz Morgan-Lewis (The Soroptimist president), Sophy Ridge (Sky blogger), Cherie Lunghi.

Lynne Featherstone, and more.

Six Pillars – Pearls on the Ocean Floor

sixpillarstopersia — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:35:51 +0000

This Torture
Why should we tell you our love stories
when you spill them together like blood in the dirt?

Love is a pearl lost on the ocean floor,
…or a fire we can’t see,
but how does saying that
push us through the top of the head into
the light above the head?

Love is not
an iron pot, so this boiling energy
won’t help.

Soul, heart, self.

Beyond and within those
is one saying,
How long before
I’m free of this torture!

(by Hafez, C14th)

American director Robert Adanto visits the UK while making his new film. Pearls on the Ocean Floor is a documentary looking at Iranian women artists, born both before and after the revolution, inside and outside of Iran. The narrative is made up of images by the featured artists and other female Iranian artists, and the women speaking to the camera, which affords the film a certain honesty and directness.

The film is screening at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square with a panel discussion on March 7th 2011, 7-9pm, all welcome.

Six Pillars – The .Com Father

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:13:20 +0000

On a visit to the UK, the founder of the largest website for Iranians in the world, Iranian.com visits the studio. Jahanshah Javid devotes his life to the website, known for its user generated content, and the catch-phrase ‘nothing is sacred’. Here the interview moves into other topics with interviewer Fari Bradley playing devil’s advocate on certain issues to scuffle up a debate.

After all, that’s what comment led content is about these days….

This show was originally aired on 104.4FM in February 2010

Six Pillars – Persian Maps

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:05:28 +0000

“History and geography are the basis of all the humanities.“

After falling in love with a map of Persia in Harrods, Dr Ala’i spent years researching the cartography of Iran and Persia before publishing two large volumes by Brill, on different maps of Persia from the 1400s to 1925.

Dr Ala’i was invited by Iran Heritage to give a talk in January 2011 on his extensively researched specialty, and Six Pillars interviewed him to find out more about this passion of his.

This is the whole interview, the first part of which was broadcast in January 2011 on Six Pillars to Persia, from the Resonance104.4Fm studios, London.

David Toop – TEDx-Aldebrugh

sixpillarstopersia — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:08:11 +0000

“Ideas worth spreading”. Prior to taking part in TED, David Toop discusses matters around opera, silence and his dog with Fari Bradley.

Saturday 6 November 2010
Autumn – Winter TEDx Aldeburgh: Ideas worth spreading – A Conference

TEDx allows organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences, hence TEDx Aldeburgh.

Hosted by Thomas Dolby, Musical Director of the TED Conference, the event featured live talks by Louis Lortie, Martyn Ware, Tim Exile, Imogen Heap,
United Visual Artists, David Toop and others.

Six Pillars – Persian Cartography

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:12:24 +0000

Prior to a talk arranged by Iran Heritage, the estimable Dr Alai discusses how phonetics, fashion, social hierarchies and myth enter the world Persian cartography. With perhaps the largest personal collection of Persian maps Dr Alai has published two immense volumes on the topic both of which have been included in Brills Handbook list for the Middle East.

His talk tonight: “Special Maps of Iran” in London, is free to attend at SOAS, University of London.

Six Pillars – Sufi’s Night

sixpillarstopersia — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:51:41 +0000

January 22nd 2011 Festival of Arts presents a night of improvised music and experimental Iranian dance: Sufi’s Night

Fusing the influences of disciplined dances such as tango and flamenco, Iranian dance takes on an almost Indian Kathak like energy, and the dramatic motions of the two performers Shahrokh Meshkin Ghalam and Karine Gonzales convey all the regal dignity of the epic stories and emotions they relate.

Here we interview daf impresario Hossein Zahavi, who is playing percussion on the night, and table maestro Yusuf Mamud who will be performing on vocals and tabla.

Six Pillars – The First UK Iranian Film Festival

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:32:34 +0000

November saw the launch of the London’s first Iranian Film Festival: UKIFF.

In late October we met with one of the volunteers, Costas Sarkas, at one of UKIFF’s networking events, to find out what it was all about.

Six Pillars – Britain Retold

sixpillarstopersia — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:30:28 +0000

Photographer Sara Shamsawari exhibits a selection from her series in City Hall entrance until January 4th.

The exhibition is a series of engaging portraits around the symbolism of the union jack with all its connotations. The photos are accompanied by statements and both promote a questioning of our ideas of what it means to be British now.

Six Pillars – Drinking Arak Off An Ayatollah’s Beard

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:19:56 +0000

Venturing around Iran and Afghanistan with a copy of the Shahnameh tucked under his arm, Nicholas Jubber relates what this pivotal introduction taught him about modern people who still love this medieval text.

Jubber explains how The Shahnameh, or Persian Book of Kings, is still very much alive today for many people, even 1000 years after it’s completion.

His book certainly has it’s own style and he visited the Resonance104.4FM studios to explain certain points: from beards to butchers to free motorbikes.

This show was originally broadcast on 2nd August, 2010

Six Pillars to Persia – A Mystic’s War on Terror….

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:18:38 +0000

At the Omar Khayyam Society’s event A Mystic’s War on Terror, Autumn 2010, we caught up with the main Sufi speaker Ammat Un Nur.

Read her speech from the night on the above link, a speech that contained the quote by Jimi Hendrix who said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”.

Her Sufi website.

Here is some of the event write-up:

Ammat un Nur belongs to a lineage named Chishti-Inayati. (We are supposed to know automatically what that lineage is, I guessed it had something to do with renowned Sufi school rather than an individual). She has also been influenced by the Mevlevi tradition originating from Mevlana Rumi (you’re supposed to know that is the same Rumi, the Sufi poet). Her work involves researching, writing on the Inayatian legacy of the Sufi Orders. (I had no idea what that was).

The debate took the form of a panel, mostly of women, who put forward a speech or an intro and then took questions. One aspect of the write-up that really caught my eye was the promise of a look at the neglect of the feminine in Islam. there is a feminist branch or movement in Islam. I wanted to know what a woman’s role was considered to be in Sufism, as in Iran, in the mountains, some all female Sufi orders do exist….

If the title of the podcast has aroused your curiosity and you are interested in this kind of study, here a SOAS course that could be for you.

You will have to pay a lot mind, to study. If you go to stay with Ammat, your studies will be free. There’s food for thought.

This podcast was made for the ResonanceFM series Six Pillars to Persia by Fari Bradley – the show is a weekly look at the Iranian diaspora, the culture of Iran, Persian heritage and related topics.

Six Pillars – Anatomy of a Street and Light Dreams

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:05:51 +0000

Both previous guests on the show in ’06/7 two artists discuss their latest works and exhibits.

Neda Dana-Haeri’s duo show with Virginia Waterhouse is called “Light Dreams” at A&D Gallery, Chiltern Street. Watercolours and abstraction refer to sufism and poetry in Dana-Haeri’s work. We speak on location at the Church Street project detailed below.

Bahbak Hashemi-Nezad discusses aubergines and the architecture of a community in his Serpentine supported work Anatomy of a Street. Anatomy of A Street is a research project organised by the Hungarian Cultural Centre in conjunction with the London Festival of Architecture 2010 and will run at Church Street, NW8 from Friday 25th June to Sunday 4th July (when the Church Street Festival takes place).

The project will bring new visitors to Church Street and encourage them to find out about the area and the various changes over the last 20/30 years and Audio Tour compare these changes with those that have taken place at a similar high street in Pecs, Hungary (European Capital of Culture 2010).

This show was originally broadcast on June 28th 2010 from the ResonanceFM studios, London.

Pédilüv ep.6 – Comme un dimanche !

Cora — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:46:26 +0000

Une après-midi à Saint Ouen, c’est bien, c’est audonien, c’est kok-drouhin.

Sanne, Julia et un peu Arjan vous raconte des histoires pas racontables.
Idéal pour une écoute au chocolat chaud devant le feu de cheminée.

Le plus court chemin entre les pieds et les oreilles, c’est Pedilüv

Six Pillars – Gender, Wars and Chadores…Art Basel Miami with Canvas Magazine

sixpillarstopersia — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:31:18 +0000

This interview with Canvas founder and director Ali Khadra looks at a series of talks curated by Canvas hosted at Art Basel by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co- Director, Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London.

Ali Khadra explains why and how Canvas intends to turn the talks into a book and documentary, and examines our preconceived notions regarding art, the middle east and sexuality with this series.

The interview is interspersed with extracts from the third of the talks: Gender, Wars and Chadors talk on Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, organised by Canvas magazine at Art Salon, 6 December 2009.

Artists taking part in the third talk were Ghada Amer, Kader Attia and Akram Zaatari while Hans Ulrich Obrist chaired. Watch the video here.

Six Pillars to Persia is produced and presented by Fari Bradley, a journalist living in London, for Resonance 104.4FM

Pédilüv – Ep.2 – Eating in Tongues

Cora — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:22:34 +0000

EATING IN TONGUES

Votre bain de pieds pour les oreilles de ce soir vous immerge dans la pièce sonore de Julia Loktev (photo) et Nancy Steadman, Eating in Tongues. Cette pièce, sortie des archives du LMC, a été réalisée en 1991, pour le festival Radio Contortion, organisé par la radio Montrealaise CKUT, membre du réseau des radios créatives, Radio. 24mn de délectation des mots, de cuisine du langage pour ne pas oublier de se mâcher la langue de temps en temps.

pediluv@radiocampusparis.org

Six Pillars Human Rights in Iran Gig – 29th Nov, Ginglik

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:11:16 +0000

Read more about the event here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In aid of Amnesty International

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Ginglik underground bar is directly in front of Shepherd’s Bush tube station in the middle of the green as you cross the road to reach the West 12 Shopping Centre.

http://www.patrickmonahan.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/theslidingrule
http://www.myspace.com/roshisongs
http://www.iranian.com/salehi.html
70′s Iranian music sounds like:
http://www.myspace.com/persianfunk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Organised by Six Pillars to Persia radio show, on Resonance 104.4FM
http://sixpillarstopersia.wordpress.com

Get tickets in advance from: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/64436

See some of Amnesty’s work in Iran: http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/iran

Six Pillars – Mansour Bahrami & East

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:22:26 +0000

Famous for serving six balls at once on a professional court, under arm serves, and speciality shots including the ‘power shot through the legs’, ‘the lob through the legs’ and ‘the drop shot’ which bounces back over the net due to excessive backspin tennis impresario Mansour Bahrami is not to be matched. At the launch of his book he talks about his extraordinary rise to stardom via homelessness in France and the singularly harsh treatment he received as a child on the tennis courts in Iran.

BIBA (The British Iranian Business Association) organised the evening in Summer 08 as part of their public service programming. Fari Taydayon from The Energy Deployment Company and Bez Ghazian review the event at the Hilton where Bahrami was speaking.

The show features classical music played by Haydn Dickenson: piano imitates and transcends santoor in the ten minute piece ‘Tariq 1″ from the album ‘East’.

Six Pillars – The Pursuit of Pleasure

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:09:20 +0000

Author Rudi Mathee discusses his study of Persian uses for narcotics and other more mundane stimulants throughout history. Mathee’s book “The Pursuit of Pleasure” has just been released in Iran, and Fari Bradley asks him about Sherry, Shiraz wine and stimulants and opiates in ancient Persia from coffee to opium.

Mathee focusses on the Safavid period (1501-1722) in Persia, when excessive drinking by the Shah was sanctioned by society, as he was seen as the son of Shi’i Imam and therefore exempt from the ban on alcohol. This one example embodies many of the massive paradoxes that existed during this period, and still exist as the tension between public piety and personal freedom.

Like the British, the Persians lived through entire eras of compulsive drinking, yet which were then followed by periods when imbibing became punishable with 40 -80 lashings of the whip due to Islam.

This progamme was originally broadcast from Resonancefm studios in London on July 28th 2008.

* LISTEN TO THE PODCAST *

Six Pillars – A Modern Take on Folk

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:45:26 +0000

When five young men who are a typical modern concoction of traditional Iranian values and MTV play music together what will it sound like?

Simorgh is the name of a mystical bird in Sufi folklore. As a band of young urbanites however, their music incorporates group chanting and a lyrical poetry that is folk-rap, accompanied by the evocative ney flute, tar strings and the empty bellow of the daf drum. This alluring mixture is – as far as our experience shows – at it’s optimum best when seen live, so we brought them into the studio to whip up some of that tribal feeling we’ve come to associate their performances with.

Fari Bradley talks to the five members of the band about leaving university, playing football, parents, Bryan Adams and musical instruments as weapons of culture.

Simorgh run workshops for the BBC on Iranian music and put on their own concerts around London. With their own unique melange of influences, the band stand for something many of us can comprehend: what it’s like to be a cultural cocktail in London now.

This programme was originally broadcast from the Resonance104.4fm studios on July 21st 2008.

Six Pillars – Jamshid Bayrami

sixpillarstopersia — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:26:23 +0000

6IIIs to Persia on Resonance104.4fm

Photographer Jamshid Bayrami shows his works in ‘Haj’, the opening exhibition at Xerxes Fine Arts Gallery in London, the only permanent gallery dedicated to Iranian art.

Bayrami has worked successfully as a photo journalist and is known for his picture of a bloodied hand print on a T-shirt during student protests that appeared on the front of The Economist magazine. Following three days of bloodshed at Tehran University in July 1999, the subject of the picture Ahmad Batebi was given a 13-year prison sentence. Bayrami’s work continues to be frank and sincere, yet has taken on some very subtle tones as he moves into the realm of art for this exhibition.

Here Fari Bradley talks to gallery owner and curator Ali Bagherzadeh, who is himself a collector, about the show and its pieces.

This show was originally broadcast from the Resonancefm studios on July 7th 2008