WOMADELAIDE: MEHR ENSEMBLE
Their music may not be accepted in their home country of Iran, but that has not stopped Melbourne-based Mehr Ensemble from establishing themselves as one of Australia’s leading Persian musical acts.
Their sound is a fusion of different styles from all over Iran, from the Kurdish regions of the West, to cosmopolitan Tehran.
In Adelaide they will be performing two very different styles. Firstly, mesmerising Sufi music, with the sounds of the Tamboor, an ancient, long-necked, stringed instrument. This will be followed by more traditional music from Iran, featuring ornate instrumentation and vocal solos based upon the radif tradition.
“It’s a collection of very old songs, from 300 years which have survived orally,” explains the group’s leader Pooya Mehman Pazir. The songs are based on systems of scales and modes, rearranged to form new compositions.
Pazir tells how he came to be a musician and found himself living in Australia.
“When I was aged 13, I meet a Sufi. He gave me a big bag, and he said to me to take it home. He said ‘Whenever you need a friend, whenever you need someone to talk to. It’s in the bag’,” he reminisces.
In that bag was his first Setar. From then on he was hooked.
“The whole course of my life changed to music,” says Pazir.
An accomplished musician and composer in Iran, Pazir came to Australia with a desire to learn Western music and work with Western Orchestras.
One of the lucky ones – Australia has recently started deporting rejected Iranian asylum seekers – many others live in the community indefinitely on temporary bridging visas. Pazir believes he was only the third person to receive a Distinguished Talent Visa in 2006.
His life has moved on now, only returning to Iran once in the past eight years.
State censorship within Iran has seen the persecution of many artists. Film director Jafar Panahi and his family were imprisoned after refusing to abide by content restrictions, his latest feature film had to be smuggled out of Iran.
Playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, a conscientious objector to compulsory military service was unable to leave Iran, but despite this his play, White Rabbit, Red Rabbit now travels the world.
Living in Australia has afforded the ensemble many freedoms, such as being able to include dancing as part of their performances.
“In Iran there are a lot of restrictions. Ladies can not perform by themselves, instruments are not allowed to be shown on TV and you need to seek approval for performances.”
Their first album Love and Devotion was released two years ago.
“The album has ladies voices in it, so can’t be published in Iran. If published in Iran we might have ended up in prison,” says Pazir.
Clearly a group to experience live, WOMADelaide audiences are going to be impressed with the level of skill and expertise of this ensemble. (VP)
WOMADelaide, Mar 7-10, Botanic Park, Adelaide, womadelaide.com.au
BY VANESSA POWELL
