Nexus Arts. 23 Aug 2025

 

Iranian musician Maryam Rahmani arrived in Adelaide several years ago and soon began performing in a variety of settings, sometimes solo and sometimes in collaboration, while working in the family café. Through her engaging performances on the santur, a small hammered dulcimer whose origins can be found in ancient Mesopotamia, the kamancheh, a bowed string instrument found across central Asia, and as a vocalist, she has gradually established herself in the Adelaide music scene, attracting a devoted following.

 

Rahmani has now recorded an album, entitled Kamand, in collaboration with David Moran (cello), Sebastian Collen (piano and electronics), Gustavo Quintino (double bass), and Rosalie Cocchiaro (Flamenco rhythm), and the album was launched at Nexus Arts on 23 August, where she performed with Moran and Collen.

 

“Kamand” is Persian for lasso, and her album represents her personal journey of adaptation to her new culture while retaining the precious cultural elements of her native country. The music is a dialogue between cultures — largely improvised and experimental, it combines classical Persian music, the poetry of 13th and 14th century mystics, Saadi Shirazi and Hafez, and eclectic and experimental western idioms.

 

The resulting music is unique and captivating, as Rahmani, who has a music degree from Tehran University, incorporates modern, experimental styles into her work, while her collaborators respond to her traditional music and imbue the performance with their own musical sensibility.

 

Rather than relying on a jointly or individually composed manuscript, the musicians respond to each other intuitively to create a compelling web of delicate, hypnotic sounds. Spontaneous improvisation requires extensive musical knowledge and experience to succeed, and it succeeds wonderfully, both on the album and in performance.

 

This musical linking may be seen as an allegory for the process of inter-cultural communication and acculturation which creates an idiosyncratic and original hybrid form without diminishing each performer’s identity and origins.

 

The much-anticipated album launch at Nexus was greeted with great acclaim — Rahmani, Moran and Collen gave an enchanting performance, creating complex and at times mesmerising music.

 

Sebastian Collen, David Moran and Maryam Rahmani, photo: Chris Reid

 

Collen performed on a prepared piano, occasionally using electronic devices placed on the piano’s strings to generate a quiet drone or inserting objects between strings, in the manner of John Cage, to change subtly the western tuning of the piano to correspond to the complex microtonal Persian tuning system of the santur.

 

Rahmani and Collen opened the performance with Rahmani playing the santur and Collen at the piano, and Rahmani sang passionately in a velvety voice the ancient poems of Persia. For the second work with Collen, Rahmani performed on the kamancheh.

 

Rahmani was then joined by Moran for two pieces for cello, santur and voice, with Moran drawing on all his repertoire of extended bowing techniques to create a magical blend of sound with the santur. For the final work, the three musicians performed together, to the delight of the enthusiastic audience.

 

In her book On Not Speaking Chinese – Living Between Asia and the West (Routledge, 2001), cultural theorist Ien Ang addresses the problem of the relationship between diasporic communities and their host communities, and she proposes a third or in-between space, a space of togetherness rather than difference, where the two communities mingle creatively as equals.

Rahmani and her collaborators have perhaps created an in-between musical space where there is mutual respect for, and the expression of, divergent cultures within an innovative musical form. Rahmani stated at the concert that she now feels at home in Adelaide, and her acculturation has spawned a unique and compelling oeuvre. And in bringing Persian traditions to Australia, Rahmani has done much to demystify those traditions and promote understanding and appreciation.

 

The Kamand album is available at Bandcamp: maryamrahmani.bandcamp.com

 

For the track entitled Encanto, Rahmani has produced a YouTube video that combines imagery of Iran with that of her daily life in Adelaide to create a delightful and life-affirming montage. The video may be seen at youtube.com

Chris Reid

When: 23 Aug 2025

Where: Nexus Arts, Lion Arts Centre

Bookings: closed

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kamand album cover

by Kaspar Schmidt Mumm