It’s not every day that an Iranian sound artist catches your ear. Then again, it’ s not every day that yet another album of ambient tones and field recordings stands out from the ever-growing crowd.
But Porya Hatami’s Land CD-R does jut that. Based in the northwestern city of Sanandaj, Hatami employs noises such as birdsong, vinyl crackles, rainfall, and the constant bustling of distant crowds and creaky carts that provide a real-world context for his gentle, glassy keys. As opposed to the sparse purity of, say, Celer, Hatami’s music comes across like a whispered secret while the rest of the world recedes into gorgeously blurry focus. Anyone even remotely familiar with the 12K roster will find little new on Land but should also appreciate the album’s tranquil resonance that soothes yet never bores. This seems to be Hatami’s debut release, but regardless of whether that’s the case, he’s clearly spent a lot of time working with these sounds. I don’t know much about the state of experimental music in Iran, but if Hatami’s work is any indication, it’s a scene that deserves a wider audience.
