Mirsaeed Hosseiny Panah – I Wish I Were Water (Losen Records, 2022)
Santur (also known as santoor) maestro and composer Mirsaeed Hosseiny Panah artfully interweaves Persian music with western classical music on the album I Wish I Were Water. He intends to bring various cultures together at a time when there are ongoing confrontations across the world. Based in Norway, Mirsaeed Hosseinypanah, who has a background in Iranian traditional music, jazz, and Western modernism, seeks to create engaging intersections between Eastern and Western cultural expressions.
Through his finely crafted music, which incorporates texts by the renowned poet Ahmad Shamlou, Hosseinypanah captures the complexity and uncertain nature of Shamlou’s work, mixing instrumental patterns and tonal material from traditional scales with expressive song lines. His mastery of the santuor instrument adds a distinct atmosphere to the orchestral textures.
I Wish I Were Water signifies Hosseinypanah’s willingness to move beyond his cultural background while still honoring it, aiming to establish a new and comprehensive musical identity. Lasse Thoresen, a Norwegian composer and professor, recognizes the importance of breakthroughs in music occurring in borderlands and views Mirsaeed as a strong voice in this realm, eagerly anticipating his future endeavors.
Ahmad Shamlou, a renowned Iranian poet, introduced the style of “white poetry” to the world, deviating from the rigid structures of traditional Iranian poetry. Inspired by Shamlou, Hosseinypanah aims to bring freedom to classical Iranian music by following the form suggested by each lyric and interpreting it through musical expressions influenced by Western classical music and jazz. While his interpretations are based on literal translations of Shamlou’s poems, true poetic translation requires specialized expertise beyond his own.
Musicians:
Vocalists: Njål Sparbo (bass); Amalie Kongssund (soprano); and Marika Schutze (mezzo-soprano)
Dimitris Spouras: conductor
Instrumentalists: Tora Røstvik on flute; Gracia Ortega Navarro on clarinet; Espen Nystog Aas on bass clarinet; Jonathan Sandqvist on bassoon; Mari Birgitte Bølgen Halvorsen on violin 1; Kaja Pernille Østervold on violin 2; Christopher Rossebø on viola; and Marek Bienkunski on cello
Mirsaeed Hosseiny Panah on chromatic santur, composer
Buy I Wish I Were Water.
Author: Claudia Taylor
