Ramin Roshandel & Jean-François Charles

Concerts

Sep 22, 2023, Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City

Sep 15, 2023, Impromptu Fest @ High Concept Labs, Chicago

Sep 12, 2023, Iowa State University

Sep 11, 2023, University of Nebraska, Omaha

Sep 8, 2023, University of Iowa, Musicology & Music Theory Colloquium

May 14, 2023, Blanc Gallery, Maryam Taghavi’s exhibition A Leap Has No Return, Chicago

Apr 29, 2023, Iowa City, performance with Ben LaMar Gay & Pascal Niggenkemper, Pang! concert

Apr 7, 2023, SEAMUS Festival 2023, New-York City

Mar 25, 2023, Turn Up Multimedia Festival 2023, Tucson, Arizona

Mar 18, 2023, MOXsonic Festival, Warrensburg, Missouri

Oct 21, 2022, Album Release Party
Public Space One, Iowa City, 7 p.m.

Apr 29, 2022, New York City Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit
New York City College of Technology, Voorhees Theater

Nov 13, 2021, Chicago, Chicago Artists Coalition
A Form By Which To Be Possessed, an exhibition by Maryam Taghavi, closing reception

Feb 17, 2021, Iowa City, Englert Theatre

Dec 14, 2019, Iowa City, Voxman Music Building, first shared performance

Features

October 14, 2023, Chāhārgāh from the album Jamshid Jam is the soundtrack to choreographer Jaruam Xavier's Elementary Latitude for a collaboration with the University of Iowa's International Writing Program.

August 10, 2023, Bayāt-e Esfahān from the album Jamshid Jam is featured in the soundtrack to an interview with Johanna Winters.

Album

According to Persian myths, Jamshid was the "inventor of music." In Jamshid Jam, Roshandel & Charles combine haunting melodies and ancestral rhythms with live sampling and remixing to create a new imaginary folklore.

Ramin Roshandel: setār
Jean-François Charles: live electronics

Street Date: October 18, 2022
Available on major streaming platforms (amazon music, apple music, deezer, qobuz, spotify, tidal), bandcamp, and CD.

Label: New Flore Music
UPC Code: 198003428133

Track List

1. Bayāt-e Tork	18:22
2. Chāhārgāh	09:39
3. Segāh	20:07
4. Bayāt-e Esfahān	12:54

Total time:	61:21

Composed & performed by Ramin Roshandel & Jean-François Charles
Mixed & mastered by Frédéric Apffel

Cover calligraphy & photography by Ramin Roshandel
Graphic design by Marc Dannenhoffer

Liner Notes:
Touching Language, Sounds, and Shadows
by Nima Janmohammadi, composer and performer of Persian classical music
Excerpt: How do you imagine taking part in a dialogue with the sound of an ancient tradition that has always been on the verge of disappearance? The sonic dust of a country that has been burned to the ground several times over the centuries and yet has formed some of the most elaborate and highly sophisticated musical structures to have ever existed. How does one find a language to communicate with such a phenomenon? How would one penetrate the many ephemeral layers of such a sound world? In Jamshid Jam, Jean-François Charles and Ramin Roshandel assume the impossibility of such dialogue by taking it to its extreme, where the very nature of logic and language is dissolved. The two sonic sensibilities do not meet for a dialogue, peace-making, or other metaphorical forms of meaning-making external to the sounds, but to touch, just to touch what is in front of them through the medium of an ancient instrument and a futuristic machine...

From an Artificial Existence to a New Identity
by Nima Hamidi, computer scientist and composer
Excerpt: We invent to replace ourselves. We create tools that imitate us or our surroundings. They even do our jobs – sometimes much better than ourselves. In a similar manner, we design musical instruments to emulate human voices and natural environments. But just as new tools create new tasks, so new musical devices redefine music, music creation, and aesthetics...

Album reviews, media, awards

Feb 2023, Little Village, USA: review by Kent Williams
Nothing repeats, exactly, but as Marvin Bell would say, it repeats "inexactly."
https://issuu.com/littlevillage/docs/littlevillage-315

Jan 2023, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, i.e. German Record Critics’ Award
Nomination in two categories: Crossover Productions and World Music.

Nov 29, 2022, Fanfare, USA: review by Huntley Dent
The two musicians behind this release are in the rare position of creating a new genre of music. Roshandel and Charles have fascinating imaginations. The weaving of setār with electronica often assumes the contour of a spectral nocturne, and at every turn the sound world morphs into something new and strangely enticing. The feeling of Jamshid Jam is always musical and appealing.
fanfarearchive.com

Oct 26, 2022, Expanding the scope of sound and the setar: Ramin Roshandel portrait by Portia Leigh on medium.com
Composer Ramin Roshandel continues to expand the scope of the setar’s sound and possibility.

Sep 29, 2022, Global Music Awards: Silver Medal
Outstanding Achievement, categories Persian modern music & instrumentalist.

Sep 11, 2022, WORT-FM 89.9 Madison: RTQE, hosted by Gregory Taylor
Bayāt-e Esfahān on the air.

Aug 28, 2022, WORT-FM 89.9 Madison: RTQE, hosted by Gregory Taylor
Bayāt-e Tork on the air.

Aug 25, 2022, Vital Weekly, The Netherlands: review by Frans de Waard
In their jam sessions, they couple ancient musical folklore with modern technology. (...) [In Bayat-E Esfahan], Charles lays down a delicate, mild drone, mid-way picks up the setār, and there is an excellent tension between both players.
http://www.vitalweekly.net/1349.html