“Raaz” is the name of a project based on the music of Baluchestan, composed by Hooshyar Khayam in collaboration with composer and electronic musician Bamdad Afshar. The work is for tape (pre-recorded music of Baluchistan), live vocalists, Baluchi ensemble, piano, string quartet, prepared piano and electronics. It is the first of Khayam’s projects to record and recompose the provincial music of Iran. The work was commissioned by the Iranian Heritage Foundation (IHF) in London.
If I share my secret with the sea, every being at the bottom of the sea transforms to non-being. If I share my secret with the mountains, the peaks collapse and turn into ashes. If I throw my secret at fire, the flame dies instantly. If I throw my secret at a house, whatever is hidden in it becomes discernible.
— Verses from a Qasida attributed to Sheikh Abdol Qader Gilani
Credits
Project leader: Hooshyar Khayam. Composers: Hooshyar Khayam and Bamdad Afshar. Local musicians from Baluchestan: Khodadad Shakkal Zehi (gheychak, tanburag, vocals), Davoud Bameli (tanburag, vocals), Omar Sami (benjoo), Hamed Bameli (doholak), Sogol Shayesteh (vocals). Supervisors of Baluchi music: Afsaneh Hagh Shoar, Mohammad Reza Darvishi. Sound engineer: Reza Assadpour. Recorded at Tehran Records Studio (2018–2019) and Persian Sound City Recording Studio (2018). String recordings: Sheherazade Quartet. Photography: Erfan Parsa. Camera: Dariush Gorgvand.