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Ata Ebtekar: “Miniature Tone”
From the album Persian Electronic Music Yesterday and Today: 1966-2006 (2007)
The electronic composer Ata Ebtekar (AKA Sote) has a unique ability to create music that is at once noisy and melodious, cacophonous and profoundly serene.
Ebtekar is an American composer of Iranian descent who was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1972. His music combines digital means of sound creation with ancient formal patterns, such as the radif, the melodic figures of Persian classical music that have been passed down orally for centuries.
Also available online is another piece by Ebtekar, the haunting “Synthetic Overture (Satan’s Lullaby).” Notice how this piece repeats a simple melodic phrase, each time enriching it with new layers of timbre. The gentle-sounding melody takes on noisy, sinister overtones.
An interview with Ebtekar, featuring more of his music, is available as a podcast from resonancefm.com.
The album from which this track is taken also includes the music of Alireza Mashayekhi, an Iranian composer who, like Ebtekar, sought to integrate aspects of traditional Persian music with electronically generated sounds. Because he was working much earlier (much of his music was produced in the 60s and 70s), Mashayekhi makes use of older technology which can sound harsh or brittle to modern ears, but his music is nonetheless powerful and original. Altogether the album is first-class, one of the best electronic records I’ve heard in some time.
Played 50 time(s).
February 20, 2009, 9:55am
