VA - Elnaz Seyedi: a sun of one's own (2024) [Hi-Res]

The music of Iranian composer Elnaz Seyedi challenges the listener to discover multi-layered and subtle sounds, often at the limit of perception. According to Dirk Wieschollek in the booklet text, Seyedi's compositions are characterised by the simultaneous presence of opposites: “the widely separated registers of the instruments, and the tension between fragment and continuum, development and stasis, tonal abstraction and enigmatic relationships to extra-musical content.”

Borrowings from poetry, which often form the intellectual breeding ground of her works, are particularly striking, such as in Nach neuen Meeren for clarinet and accordion, written for and interpreted by the Zöllner-Roche duo. It was based on the homonymous poem by Friedrich Nietzsche. The painting “The Sun” by Edvard Munch in turn inspired Seyedi to create the ensemble work a sun of one's own. The finest colour gradations and an imperceptible brightening are reproduced here by the Kommas Ensemble.

In addition to traditional instruments, the composer also experiments with unusual sound producers such as spatulas of different sizes and pitches in the musical-scenic work PS-nach Spuren in collaboration with the composer Ehsan Khatibi, which is integrated into this portrait as an online video. Special instruments by the pioneer of microtonality Harry Partch can be heard in Ensemble Musikfabrik's interpretation of fragments inside.