OCCII ON TOUR! @ Willem De Zwijgerkerk: w/ Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian (Karaj, Iran) + Trio: Germaine Sijstermans, Koen Nutters & Reinier van Houdt + Katayoun

Seated Show!

Some music instruments carry a whole world of tradition, faith and culture. It’s the case of the tanbur, a millennia-old lute strongly tied to the city of Kermanshah (western Iran). Its practice is associated with mystical Yarsan religious beliefs, and its knowledge is passed down through generations. Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian, a young master of the instrument, was immersed in this culture from an early age, as he began learning the maqams (modes/scales) as a child, and now he’s sharing his hypnotic compositions on the tanbur, as if it was an extension of his soul. Reflective and profound, his music unfolds through repetitive melodies and rhythms which gradually, gently evolve, for a style that is deeply personal, yet deeply connected with history.

https://mostafaheydarian.bandcamp.com/

Listen to Mostafa Heydarian’s new album “Noor-e Vojood”: https://radiokhiyaban.bandcamp.com/album/noor-e-vojood

The Quietus “Album of the Week”: https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/album-of-the-week/noor-e-vojood-mohammad-mostafa-heydarian-review/

Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian was born on the first of January, 2002 in Kermanshah, a city in western Iran. Kermanshah is the home of the tanbur, a pear shaped lute whose origins can be traced in the region for more than 5000 years. The Yarsans, a millennium sect of Kurdish people, have long made this region of the country their home. Their mystic rituals (jâm) are performed with tanbur, and the sacred music they play is a heritage that is steeped in one thousand years of tradition. Mostafa‘s father, Morteza, was a percussion player whose main musical instrument was the dâf, a frame drum. At the age of twenty, Morteza started learning tanbur crafting, and it is in these overlapping worlds of tradition, family, faith, and culture that Mostafa is born.

There are pictures of Mostafa holding a tanbur before he can even walk. At around seven years old Mostafa began to learn Yarsan’s maqams (modes/scales). Also around this time the family moved to Karaj, a city located one hour west of Tehran, a move that provided more opportunities to meet musicians that regularly drop by Morteza‘s tanbur studio. It is here that Mostafa takes lessons from a number of master teachers (Ostads) and absorbs the sounds of the tanbur on the many cassettes in his father’s cupboard. Everyday after school he rushes to his father’s workshop and allows himself to drop the tanbur only for dinner. His mind is obsessed with playing and listening. In his dreams he sees the late tanbur master Seyyed Amrollâh giving him advice. His path is clearly on the tanbur side.

When Mostafa was a teenager he met Valentin Portron, a traveling French musician, who, upon watching videos of the famed tanbur master Seyyed Khâlil Alinejad, had travelled to Karaj to acquire and learn tanbur. Alinejad just happens to be one of Mostafa‘s favorite tanbur players, and thanks to their mutual knowledge of English and common love for sacred music, a new brothership is born. In early 2020, Valentin asked Mostafa to record some tanbur for his rock band, Portron Portron Lopez. Mostafa rushes to a small studio in Karaj and improvises three tracks. A new idea comes to his mind, and with the help of Behzâd Varâshte, a dâf player living in front of Morteza‘s studio, they record three more tracks. The result being Mostafa‘s first album, Songs of Horaman.

Screenshot

thanks to PLANET ROCK

Trio: Germaine Sijstermans / Koen Nutters / Reinier van Houdt

This release brings together three Dutch composers/performers, Reinier van Houdt, Germaine Sijstermans, and Koen Nutters, who have each released their own work on elsewhere music in recent years. Nutters, who has collaborated in the past with both van Houdt (Cornelius Cardew project) and Sijstermans (DNK Ensemble, The Names), conceived the idea of a trio performance with the two musicians, which later developed into this three-way collaborative project.

Last December the trio played a concert at the Savelberg Chapel, a small church in Heerlen, Limburg (NL), where they played three pieces, one written by each: Linden (Sijstermans), A Piece with Memories (Nutters), and Harmonic Circles (van Houdt). This release is a live recording of that performance.

Using various instruments including clarinets, indian harmonium, harmona (electric East German suitcase) organ, voices, field recordings, sine tones, objects, and tapes, the trio played in perfect synch, giving the three pieces rich, complex layers of sound and profundity, enveloping the audience in a vibrant yet contemplative space.

Katayoun (Iran/NL)

Katayoun Arian is a collector, radio host, and DJ based in Amsterdam. With a devotion to Iranian music across regions and decades, her selections invite audiences to discover new sounds while reimagining familiar ones in unexpected ways.

As an archivist, she maintains an expansive collection of vinyl, cassettes, and CDs, focusing on Iran’s pre-1979 vinyl era and the musical heritage of the Iranian diaspora, with particular attention to the Tehrangeles scene from the 1980s to the 2000s.

Her feminist approach to music archiving is dynamic and evolving, grounded in reactivation, reinterpretation, and world-building. It often reveals connections between different geographies and region-specific genres through shared or complementary styles. She currently hosts the outsider show Sonic Imaginaries on Kiosk Radio and plays at nightlife venues, festivals, and museums.

https://www.instagram.com/iranianmusicarchives/

READ full article in last weeks Volkskrant here: https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/iraans-nederlandse-dj-verzamelt-scherven-van-irans-verwoeste-muziekleven-muziek-is-als-lijm~bf7aef02/

WILLEM DE ZWIJGERKERK
Kunst, zin en cultuur in de Stadionbuurt
Olympiaweg 14, Amsterdam Zuid
https://willemdezwijgerkerk.nl/