Modern Persian Speech Sounds

Interview
by Arshia Fatima Haq

I interviewed Omid Walizadeh who recently released the stunning album Modern Persian Speech Sounds. We discuss his journey from the underground Los Angeles hip hop scene to a rediscovery of his childhood treasury of Iranian cassette tapes, the recent explosion of vintage Iranian music on the global circuit, and a certain iconic Persian ice cream shop in the heart of LA.


The Album


The Shop

Mashti Malone is a famous Persian ice cream shop in the heart of Los Angeles. Featured flavors include rosewater saffron, orange blossom and pistachio, and sour cherry sorbet. Join us!

Mashti Malone

Biography

Arshia Fatima Haq is Los Angeles based filmmaker, writer and DJ, and is the founder of Discostan, a collective of artists curating sound, image, and text from an imagined federation of states spanning the regions of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and eastward to the edge of the earth – from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay. Narrative threads include migration, celebration, warfare, nostalgia, homeland, borders, often within realms of Islamic influence, through the lenses of timeless traditional forms, the kaleidoscopic reinventions of pop culture, and everything in between and beyond. Most simply, Discostan is a love letter to the Dis-Orient. Follow her on her Website.

Published on August 05, 2014

Last updated on August 12, 2020

Topics

Migration
Nostalgia
Technology
All Topics
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