Siavash Amini // Eidolon CD

Iranian experimental musician Siavash Amini released a CD in July 2023 from the experimental label Room7 in Brisbane, Australia.

Contains 3 minimal drone songs that explore the Middle Eastern maqam theory.

The following is a commentary by the writer himself.

"I am obsessed with the tuning, rhythm and maqam theory of Safi al-Din Ulmavi. It started in my last year of high school, when there was a lot of discussion among Iranian musicologists about his 17-note scale and whether it was of any use or relevance to Iranian music at the time.

During the last half-century, I have spent theI've been thinking a lot about the more general discussion of tuning in maqam theory.

I wasn't sure how to approach these tunes, but as I was making A Trail of Laughters, I started to get a feel for it.We decided that these tuning relationships could not be explored with conventional instruments and compositional techniques.I don't want to approach it in a historical sense either.I want to find my own approach by using these as materials and borrowing from contemporary experimental music and electronic music.

Illusions, images that appear and disappear, things that take shape in an instant and disappear the next, things that you can't tell whether you've seen them or not, require a specific setting in order to be experienced.Like Redon's drawings, what we see and feel in an undetermined space.I tried to see if these tuning systems (mainly Ulmavi's 17-note scale) could be a starting point to create such a space for myself, by rolling frequencies and pitches against each other, and by letting the resulting sounds and textures float, collide, drain and bleed. "

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CD in matte laminate sleeve. 

Tracklist:

1. ortus                         10:43
2. Instantia                    09:51                
3. Relictio                      15:06                

A note from Siavash Amini

"Let me get this out of the way; I'm obsessed with Safi-al-din Urmavi's theory of tuning, rhythm, and maqam. It started in my last year of high school, at the time there was a lot of back and forth between Iranian music scholars about his 17-tone scale and whether it had any use or relevance to Iranian music of that day.
 
I've been thinking about those discussions and more general discussions of tuning in the maqam system of the 13th century a lot in the past half-decade.

I didn't know how to approach these tunings, but I started to get a sense of it while making A Trail of Laughters.I decided that the relevance of these tunings couldn't be explored with conventional instruments and composition techniques.I do not want to approach them in a historical sense, either.
 
The apparition, an image appearing and disappearing, taking shape in an instant and gone in the next, something you're not sure You've seen, needs a particular setting to be experienced. Something seen or felt in an undetermined space like Redon's drawings.

Maybe my other obsessions, namely darkness, light, and death, can be at least in some sense conceived in this shadowy undetermined space and just maybe something here and there makes its presence felt. "

Artist: Siavash Amini

Label: Room40