Scattered Memories

Born in Tehran in 1983, Saba Alizadeh is a virtuoso of the Iranian kamancheh (spike fiddle). With an extensive background in Persian classical music, Alizadeh subsequently studied experimental sound-art and photography in Los Angeles. This debut recording, originally self-released in Iran in 2018, is an attempt to blend the textures of Persian music with electro-acoustic experimentation. Far from being bland electronica, as many such fusions often are, Alizadeh's level of control of both the traditional and technological aspects of his music is clear from the outset.

What results is a beautifully fragmented exploration of internal space, which often wanders between the contemplative and the neurotic. In opener ‘Blood City’, the rasping introductory harmonics of the kamancheh are underscored by reverberating drones, which attain a chant-like quality. Largely abstract in nature, the soundscape is occasionally punctuated with samples of other Persian instruments, as well as field recordings from Tehran – such as the snatches of whispered voice on ‘Would You Remember Me’.

As the title suggests, the music plays with themes of memory and dream, with the ambiguity of the compositions serving as a simulacrum of things half-remembered, alongside recurring references to water and fluidity. The desolate closing piece, ‘Fluid’, ends the album with a solemn melancholia, the electronic textures receding into the background to serve Alizadeh's stark improvisation.