SOTE - Parallel Persia

"Pivotal Iranian artist Ata Ebtekar mounts a head-buzzing debut for Diagonal, pushing microtonal tunings and timbres into mind-bending geometrical designs that echo the modular synth and strings formulæ of Dariush Dolat-Shahi for Smithsonian Folkways, but keen much deeper into noisy, uncanny valleys of modernist perceptual exploration. Parallel Persia presents the latest iteration of Sote's restlessly searching sound which has been in action for 30 years now. Commissioned for an AV performance at Donau festival in 2018, the album is a natural extension of his stunning Sacred Horror In Design LP, feeding classical Iranian music tropes into a computer and modular synths to diffract and detach their meaning and operation, open them up to strange possibilities of electro-acoustic practice in the process. But more than ever in Parallel Persia, his focus turns from percussion to tonal relationships, combining various synthesis techniques and instrumental recordings at the service of a holist