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Iran’s growing feminist movement, the role of mathematics in music, and the impacts of erosion on sea stacks are but a few of the topics explored on Recurrence.
The concept album, released in October 2023, is based on how repetition manifests across all parts of our lives, ranging from the philosophical to economic, to natural. Its five works were each written by a different Canadian composer, including the Juno Award-winning Jordan Nobles and Prix Opus composer of the year, Nicole Lizée. The album is only available in digital formats.
Saman Shahi is the project’s leader and pianist. Shahi combined his love of storytelling and the environment to compose Eroded, a 13-minute exploration of the cycle of erosion in sea stacks. “The pressure of the water slowly creates a little hole within the rock that turns into a cave, then collapses (to) create a sea stack. It’s poetic … This thing is created and, by the same force, destroyed,” Shahi says.
Eroded focuses on sound and colour: xylophones emulate drops of water, harps create glissando effects that evoke the movement of water, and loud percussive interjections suggest cracks in the stone. Shahi describes the piece as a departure from his usual tonal style; he wanted to push himself, given the high-profile suite of musicians with whom he was working.
Saman Shahi (Photo provided)
Shahi recalls watching the New Orford String Quartet worked together “as an organism” to fix an issue in a matter of 30 seconds. Adapting to their styles of play and collaboration taught him a lot about efficient problem-solving over the album’s three-day recording session.
“I had to show up over-prepared—to make sure nothing would go wrong, and make me look like a fool in front of these giants. So many moments of impostor syndrome … but I feel like I’m a much better musician as a result,” he says.
Maziar Heidari is the album’s conductor, and the composer of Arrays, which explores physics and mathematics in music. He says it’s always a challenge for a conductor to work with original compositions because there’s no point of reference for interpretation.
“Lizée likes to write tons of complex time signatures, which is a nightmare for conductors and musicians,” Heidari says with a laugh. “At first glance I said: ‘Why is this?’ After one month of studying and practice sessions, I played it like Mozart. I was confident in it because I felt the music.”
As the co-founder of Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto (ICOT), Heidari had an easier time with the compositional styles of ICOT members Shahi and Keyan Emami. Emami’s work focuses on the Woman, Life, Freedom protests that began in Iran in September 2022. It’s named Kian in Rainbows after Kian Pirfalak, a 9-year-old Iranian artist who was killed by an officer involved in the government’s push back on the protests.
Shahi hopes the album’s range will expose listeners to new genres and ideas. “We hope that everybody who listens will be presented with something that surprises them and that triggers their inner curiosity,” he says.
Recurrence is available on Leaf Music: https://leaf-music.ca/music/lm256/
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