Heydarian, Mohammad Mostafa

Heydarian, Mohammad Mostafa

Noor-e Vojood

Centripetal Force / Cardinal Fuzz / Radui Khiyaban

***Centripetal Force (North America), Cardinal Fuzz (UK), and Radio Khiyaban (Europe) are excited to announce Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian's second album Noor-e Vojood. 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. The origins of this new album from Mostafa date back to 2021, when Valentin Portron and Mostafa booked the famous Bell Studio in Tehran, Iran’s oldest recording studio and one of the most respected studios in all of Asia. It was here that Mostafa started developing new ideas and a new dream. His main goal was to be more precise and intentional with his playing. He wanted to tighten his compositions while still including some unexpected moves.

Heydarian, Mohammad Mostafa

Songs of Horaman

Centripetal Force / Cardinal Fuzz / Radui Khiyaban / Ramble

***Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian is a young Kurdish tanbur player from Kermanshah, a city in the mountainous western Iranian region of Horaman. The son of a local instrument builder, he grew up surrounded by the local traditional music styles, studying with a number of well-known master musicians before recently entering university to study Persian classical music. Heydarian currently resides in Tehran and has deep affection for the land of his upbringing. Whenever he is feeling down, he thinks about Horaman and the role his home has played in making him who he is today. For Heydarian, it seemed only appropriate to title his album accordingly. Recorded in the city of Karaj with the percussive assistance of family friend and long-time collaborator Behzad Varesteh, Heydarian's debut includes a mixture of traditional tasnifs and maqams—thrilling and gorgeous tanbur pieces centered in the two musicians' talent for extended improvisation and feeling. Songs of Horaman was initially released on cassette by the European label Radio Khiyaban in November of 2021. It was immediately met with praise and positive energy, and it became clear that Heydarian’s music deserved to reach more ears. Plans to broadly distribute the album on the vinyl format came together quickly with Centripetal Force (North America), Cardinal Fuzz (UK), and Ramble Records (Australia) joining the project. In an era of production delays, supply chain shortages, increased shipping fees, heavy taxation, and other complications, these four labels hope this effort serves as a model for how DIY culture can continue to grow and...