Dožam

With the rise in the number of female music graduates over the past couple of decades in Iran – where the relationship between music and women has always been fraught – many have emerged as independent, serious voices with significant influence on Iran’s musical landscape. Dožam seeks to introduce and highlight the music of the less established yet talented female musicians in Iran. While the project could serve as a humble and thoughtful anthology of early-career female musicians or an introduction to the main instruments of Iranian music, it risks undermining its own aims by incorporating electronic backdrops or filtering the instruments which play standard Iranian improvisations in their typical modal order – with the exception of ‘Āvār’. These interventions, possibly intended to leave a personal signature and unify the pieces, could instead be replaced by a deliberate silence whose presence would be felt through its thoughtful curatorial choices.