Category Archives: Six Pillars to Persia

Six Pillars to Persia. You can subscribe to this podcast channel at this address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/sixpillars

Six Pillars – The Pursuit of Pleasure

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.pp_cover_400hMathee 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.

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Six Pillars – A Modern Take on Folk

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

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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.

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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.

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Six Pillars -Persian Voyages

Two small travel companies explain the ins and outs of travelling to Iran.  From dry sand skiing to Zoroastrian tours, there is a lot on offer!

Persian Voyages and Magic Carpet Travel share anecdotes and histories, as well as tips for those considering leaving.
This programme was originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4fm in London, on July 14th 2008

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Six Pillars – Jamshid Bayrami

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

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Six Pillars – A Contemporary Iranian Music Event + Maria Kheirkhah

Fari Bradley reports from the Contemporary Iranian Music event at the Camden Underworld and interviews artist Maria Kheirkhah live in the studio about her career choice to become an artist, collecting air in the Iranian desert and her current exhibition the Psychology of Fear. Featured are Farinaz Entegham, Ali Charmi on hip hop and faith, and the father of one of the members of Simorgh.

(pictured: Maria Keirkhah collects hot desert air for her show)

Most Iranian parents want their children to be lawyers or doctors, so how do aspiring musicians fare with their parents when making out-of-the-ordinary career choices. Also what does contemporary music mean to most young Iranians? We’ve heard the desperate eurodance trash that most clubs advertise as Persian music, and other than that there is only Dylan-esque songs and traditional music to choose from in the main.  Rightly, some UK based Iranians are fusing the traditional forms and instruments with modern concerns, with a vocal delivery that compares with rapping under the moniker Contemporary Iranian for the event and Simorgh for their group. Simorgh are also promoting other new musicians such as rapper Farinaz Entegham (Holland) and Reveal (UK).

This show was originally broadcast from Resonancefm studios in London on June 16th 2008, produced and presented by Fari Bradley

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Six Pillars – Hush the Many Heed the Few

Nima Tehranchi, singer from Hush the Many Heed the Few visits the studio and talks to Fari Bradley about his success with Hush the Many and with his own solo project “Sliding Rule“.

Nima plays live in the studio.

Hush the Many are known for their finely balanced vocal interplays and innovative songwriting and have appeared in festivals all over the UK. Since giving this interview, Hush the Many have gone their seperate ways and Nima now writes and sings with Arrows of Love. Importantly, after the show Nima mentioned that being a guest on Six Pillars had made him feel more like an Iranian and inspired to find out more about the Iranian community in London, something non-Farsi speakers have limited access to. Nima is not the first to point this out.

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Six Pillars – The Iranian Funk Scene

When you hear this stuff you are transported. So much energy and such a fine example of east-west musical balance.  On hearing these tracks the mind is drawn down images of side streets throbbing with nightclubs and bright fashion, in a setting of affluence and passionate youth.  The 70’s was a culture boom of fashion, music and norms in Iran that has not yet been equaled.  To top this, many Iranians left Iran never to return in the late 70s, so the era has become iconic.

Fari Bradley talks to Arash Saedinia, a Los Angeles-based music enthusiast and creator of the Fars Funk website, about his passion for vintage Persian popular recordings.

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Synthesizing indigenous traditions and Western influences, Iranian artists created a notable body of left-field psychedelic, rock, funk, and folk songs in the sixties and seventies. The show features songs from “Pomegranates”, a compilation of Persian pop gems due later this year from B-Music.

This programme was originally broadcast on Monday 16th June 2008 13.30

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Six Pillars – Persian Surgery Dervishes and Skiing in Iran

Rileyâ’s iconoclastic Persian Surgery Dervishes (played in full when broadcasting live but for podcast we can only play less than a minute). Plus the audio from a documentary about skiing in Iran in the 1970s by film maker Spooly.

This programme was originally broadcast 2nd June 2008 from Resonancefm studios

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Six Pillars – The Association of Iranian Researchers

The Association of Iranian Researchers (ACI) is here represented by Roya Kashefi, on the art-music radio programme Six Pillars to Persia on Resonance 104.4fm

Discussing everything from facts to figures and holes in the news, Roya explains to Fari what the ACI does and why, while demystifying some facts about Iran today. One subject close to Roya’s heart is the efforts of the women’s rights movements, an Roya discusses this and other efforts in this friendly interview.

With music by the innovative Belgian Leo Kupper (b. 1935) on electro-acoustic santoors (x2) and his own micro-processors.

Fittingly for today’s episode subject, Kupper is founder and director of the “Studio de Recherches et de Structurations Electroniques Auditives” in Brussels.

This episode was broadcast from the Resonancefm studios on May 19th 2008

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Six Pillars – Insight & Rakshan Bani Etemad

A season at the British Film Institute of the work of female film director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. Organised by small not-for-profit company Insight, the season was accompanied by masterclasses given by Bani-Etemad herself and marks the first ever comprehensive screening outside of Iran of her work.

David Omid Alamouti discusses Insight’s alternative models of film-making and the singular style of Bani-Etemad, masterclasses with Mike Leigh and Polish film.

Music by rap artist Reveal and Simorgh linked to Insight through a Contemporary Iranian Music event at Camden Underworld later that month that featured in the Bani Etemad workshops in a student film


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