A Closer Listen
“How can a sense of beauty be found amidst fear and cruelty?” asks Iranian composer Saba Alizadeh, who addresses his country’s history through historical radio sequences, music and song. In so doing, he builds a Temple of Hope.
The diversity of the music, as well as the emotional content, makes it seem like a radio play or the score to a theatrical performance; it will be intriguing to see how these tracks translate to live performance. The title track begins with powerful drums and stuttered voice, an organ tone growing in power behind the percussion. By “To Become a martyr, one has to be murdered,” the tone has plunged into darkness, the cinematic synth and strings underlining the drama. “Beauty of Politics,” one of the album’s vocal tracks, seems like a literal cry in the darkness, a voice above the drone, a metaphor of yearning. If the tone keeps shifting, it’s because Alizadeh is mirroring the mercurial moods of a nation caught between tradition and modernization, war and peace, culture and religion.
The interplay between instrumental and vocal reminds listeners of the importance of having a voice and being heard, which all too often is two different things. The stringed Kamancheh is a plea for remembrance; the voices of protesters in the Woman Life Freedom a plea for change. Sanam Maroufkhani’s wordless voice on “Women of Fire” is one of the album’s most powerful, unapologetic and unbowed. “Fall of the heroes” incorporates a strong, beating heart, which is swallowed into the drone; excision or incorporation? The heart, along with a beeping monitor, returns on “Clamour.” But the most striking voice is borne on a sample: the voice of the people, looped in “Plain of the free.”
The album is both dark and light, a witness to the past and an expression of hope for the future. The solidarity portrayed on the cover is expressed in the music. Iran is not the only nation whose populace is both patriotic and critical; the statement has a universal appeal. (Richard Allen)
Mon Jan 20 00:01:27 GMT 2025