This Online Special is a collaboration between Norient and the Berlin-based festival Klangteppich. Since 2021, this Special has grown into an archive of lively perspectives on contemporary music-making in Iran and the Iranian diaspora. Traces of references appear – freed from self-ascriptions or external attributions, artists dare to deal with their family histories and the look at individual careers and artistic strategies sharpens awareness of the complex realities in which diasporic artists work. Curated by Franziska Buhre. In 2023, Norient Books has published a printed magazine with past and new contributions by Iranian cultural practicioners from the diaspora.

  • Kindheit in Iran im Sommer (Foto: Pardis Zarghampour).
    Wann gehen wir zurück?
    Short Essay by Pardis Zarghampour
    In diesem Text reflektiert die in Deutschland lebende, lurische Sängerin Pardis Zarghampour ihr Verhältnis zur Kultur der Luren, einer indigenen iranischen Volksgruppe. Insbesondere die Musik spielt in der Kulturvermittlung eine bedeutende Rolle.
  • «Displaced» (1991, oil on canvas) – By the author’s aunt.
    And Somewhere I’ve Heard the Screams Before
    Short Essay by Shayan Navab
    In this essay, the diasporan writer Shayan reflects on the sounds of the Iranian revolutions, from the delicate stories of his family’s past to the brutal videos circulating in the aftermath of the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
  • Rundfunkempfänger Telefunken Super «Zeesen» T 875 WK (©: Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, Foto: Susan Dünewald).
    Der Rundfunk als Waffe
    Short Essay by Matthias Küntzel
    Warum bezeichnet Irans Revolutionsführer Ali Khamenei Israel als «bösartigen Krebstumor, der entfernt und vernichtet werden muss»? Über die persisch-sprachige Nazipropaganda im Rundfunk und ihre bis ins 21. Jahrhundert spürbaren Folgen.
  • Nikan Khosravi (photo: Camilla Norvoll).
    Being on the Right Side of History
    Short Essay by Nikan «Siyanor» Khosravi
    For Iranian metal musician Nikan Khosravi, music is a way to articulate protest. Having lived under state repression, metal, as he explains in this personal essay, helped him to stay candid with himself and to express his dark feelings.
  • Klangteppich.
    Klangteppich V Magazin
    Book
    Since 2021, Norient has been publishing an Online Special together with Klangteppich, the Berlin-based festival for music from the Iranian diaspora. The fifth festival edition is now an opportunity to collect a selection of previous and new texts in a printed magazine.
  • Congo Square, New Orleans (Foto: Franziska Buhre).
    Bass Drums, Cowbells, Tambourines
    Essay by Franziska Buhre
    Woher kommt die Motivation, ein Festival für Musik aus Iran und der iranischen Diaspora zu organisieren? In diesem Text erinnert sich Klangteppich-Festivalmacherin Franziska Buhre an eine prägende Reise nach New Orleans im Jahre 2016.
  • Erinnerungen an die Kindheit: aus dem Fotoalbum der Klarinettistin Shabnam Parvaresh (Foto: Autorin).
    Blinde Passagiere
    Essay by Shabnam Parvaresh
    Die Klarinettistin Shabnam Parvaresh beschreibt die Musik ihrer Kindheit und Jugend. Die Erinnerungen an ihr Elternhaus verbinden sich mit geliebten Tonträgern und endlosen Downloads. Was sie als Musikerin noch im Gepäck hatte, entdeckte sie aber erst in Deutschland.
  • Excerpt from the typewritten diary of the author’s grandparents on their move from Germany to Iran (photo: author).
    One Way Passage to Tehran
    Essay by Shaahin Peymani
    The audiovisual artist Shaahin Peymani and his family share a long history of migration from Iran to Germany and back. Here he maps the route from his German grandmother’s migration diary alongside one of his own compositions.
  • Picture taken from Reza Askari’s school paper on his father’s life in the context of Iranian history. The pictures show his father over the course of his life (photo: Reza Askari).
    Dard I Door
    Poetic Text by Tanasgol Sabbagh
    A poetic encounter with the different family histories of poet Tanasgol Sabbah and bassist Reza Askari. Weaving together experience, memory, and narrative, this piece switches between languages, and allows uncertainty about what is said and what is imagined.
  • Dastgam Association artists performing in Gondbadgah, Da Theater, Tehran, January 2017 (photo: Dastgam Association).
    Diaspora Comes Home
    Round-Up by Erum Naqvi
    A round-up of the cosmopolitan classical musical culture in Iran. Starting with music scholars of the Qajar era (1796–1925) and ending with the global music scene of the 21st century, from both the diaspora and from home.
  • The circle of scales, taken from Safī al-Dīn al-Urmawī’s book «al-Adwār» (al-Urmawī 2019).
    Making Persian Music More Accessible to Outsiders
    Essay by Arshia Samsaminia
    How can performers of contemporary music play the micro-intervals of traditional Persian music regardless of their cultural background? Artist–researcher Arshia Samsaminia explains the set of problems related to this question and looks for answers.
  • Jalal Hemmati (1936–2006), Iranian folk-street singer who both lived in Germany and the U.S. (photo: AskAnIranian.com).
    On the History of Iranian Popular Music in Germany
    Short Essay by Amin Hashemi
    In comparison to Los Angeles, there was never an Iranian «community» of popular musicians in Germany. Nevertheless, Iranian popular musicians and scholars debating popular music left their traces. Why, our author asks here, were some of them more successful than others?
  • The class of the author’s mother, 1970 in Premnitz, German Democratic Republic GDR (photo: Sophie Grobler).
    Our Homeland
    Short Essay by Sophie Grobler
    In the German Democratic Republic, the song «Unsere Heimat» (Our Homeland) became an anthem that glorified the idea of a socialist homeland. After the fall of the Berlin wall, the song disappeared from public memory. At least this was what our author thought.
  • Yalda Zamani conducting the Cracovia Sinfonietta at Penderecki Center in Lusławice, Poland (photo: the artist, 2015).
    Collaborations Instead of Hierarchies
    Short Essay by Yalda Zamani
    The conductor, researcher, and performer Yalda Zamani makes a case for more interdisciplinarity in the conductor’s practice. The search for new methods of collaboration and exchange could inspire new and progressive concepts of leadership in musical practice.
  • Hadi Bastani (photo by the artist).
    «Listening Is at the Heart of What I Do»
    Interview by Franziska Buhre, Hadi Bastani
    In this interview, sound artist, composer, and anthropologist Hadi Bastani talks about his listening habits; his earlier research on noise music, glitch, and computer music; and the effect that online fieldwork has had on his collaborative works.
  • «Ich bin eine Palme, ich kenne keine Mauer und gar keine Zäune.» – Ein Gedicht von Ali Kamrani (photo: pixabay).
    Lass mich mit Hass nicht allein
    Poem by Ali Kamrani
    In dem Gedicht für sein gleichnamiges Lied beschreibt der iranische Schauspieler und Dichter Ali Kamrani seine Erfahrungen als Einwanderer in Deutschland.

Klangteppich

Klangteppich 2023 is supported by the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin. Klangteppich 2022 was funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media) and the Co-Financing Fund Berlin.

Klangteppich Artwork Banner 2023