Aboutface -  “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” EP

Release date Fri 10th Feb 2023 via Bandcamp

 

Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom), initially a Kurdish motto, 

زن زندگی آزادی has become the chant of current protests in Iran. Women bravely have risked their lives on the streets to fight against patriarchy, harassment, and servitude to a fascist system. This project has been developed and advised with the help of an anonymous collective of individuals in Iran & London. 

The release includes handmade limited edition USB stones with ‘Mahsa' (مهسا) engraved on them in Farsi, alongside a digital mixed media download that includes the music and artworks. Mahsa Amini is a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin who had been arrested for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women and died in suspicious circumstances whilst in custody.  This was the catalyst for the mass public protests that continues to be met by regime-led brutality, leading to the deaths of many other protesters in Iran.

The music has been developed from my 2017 project Parvata (sanskrit for mountain): a one-take live improvisation using photography hung in the performance space to interpret the ancient hindu myth of Parvati - daughter of the mountains: love, loss, death, re-birth and reunion through perseverance.