General 3 — TAK editions

Love, Crystal and Stone

with Ashkan Behzadi

feat. Saharnaz Samaeinejad, Mehrdad Jafari, and Sonnenzimmer

out on TAK editions 5/10/2022

Ashkan Behzadi’s Love, Crystal and Stone stretches musical lyricism to its limit, imagining an impossibly radical, revolutionary folk music that pushes the individual and collective virtuosity of TAK ensemble to new heights.

This concert length work is a sensual, intricately interwoven, and deeply philosophical setting of the poetry of Federico García Lorca. The book features Ahmad Shamlou’s farsi translations and reimaginings of Lorca’s poetry and the ecstatically macabre paintings of Mehrdad Jafari bringing together bold visual gestures and elemental icons evoking birds, rivers, fear, ecstasy, and exaltation.

Purchase on Bandcamp!

76-page book in paper slipcase with CD insert
Designed by Sonnenzimmer
With poetry by Federico García Lorca & translations by Ahmad Shamlou
Original essay by Saharnaz Samaeinejad
Paintings by Mehrdad Jafari
and music composed by Ashkan Behzadi and performed by TAK ensemble

LOVE, CRYSTAL AND STONE

V: ¡Ay! El grito deja en el viento

VI: Casida de las palomas oscuras

VII: La Granada

IV: Arqueros

LIST OF MOVEMENTS

I: Deseo

II: Romance de la luna luna

III: La balada del agua del mar

Artist: TAK ensemble • Album: Love, Crystal and Stone • Format: CD | Digital • Release: 5/10/2022

Label: TAK editions • Cat. No. TAKe006 • Label Code: M9-518 • UPC/EAN: 085218040772

• Label + Promotion: Laura@TAKensemble.com •

Recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio | Produced by David Bird

Mastered by Taylor Brook | Book Design by Sonnenzimmer

“A song cycle of staggering imagination and originality. Behzadi’s ground-breaking approach to vocal and ensemble writing stretches sonic expression to its outer limits.” - The Wholenote

“At times, the music lashes out in bold folklorism, with brash fiddle, quick tapping percussion, and soprano Charlotte Mundy whooping like she’s at a bonfire dance, but it is quick to dissolve into dreamlike imagery, spoken passages and wordless utterances, discordant sweeps, and fragile, ethereal waves.” - MusicWorks

ASHKAN BEHZADI:

Ashkan Behzadi: is an Iranian–Canadian composer. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University. The issue of genre-identity or genre-blurring, and the dialectical relationship between modernist lyric poetry and contemporary music have formed the core of Ashkan’s aesthetic concerns. Structurally, by demonstrating great attention to details, his music conveys a miniaturist and gentle lyrical landscape. As a 2021-2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Ashkan Behzadi currently works on a large-scale music-theater project on a collection of poems by Federico García Lorca.

SAHARNAZ SAMAEINEJAD:

Saharnaz Samaeinejad is a Joseph Bombardier CGS doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Comparative Literature. She works at the intersection of Marxist political philosophy, materialist-dialectical aesthetics, and lyrical responses to modernity, with a special focus on the history and politics of Persian poetic modernism during the early-to-mid twentieth century Iran. Her dissertation explores the dialectical link between poetic creativity and critical capacity/dialectics in the lyrical oeuvre of Furūgh Farrukhzād. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Tehran University, and her M.A. in Individualized Studies from NYU.

MEHRDAD JAFARI:

Mehrdad Jafari is a graduate of Shiraz University with a BA in Handicrafts in 2008. Jafari translates the loss of reflection in humans into his mostly morbid illustrations. In his work, anthropomorphic creatures consume themselves and others in eerie yet sensual compositions. One can see these collections of drawings and objects as his diaries; everything that Jafari encounters is translated into an illustrative style wherein anthropomorphic figures play the main characters, at times even the artist himself portrayed.

SONNENZIMMER:

Sonnenzimmer (est. 2006) is the collaborative practice of artists Nick Butcher (b. 1980) and Nadine Nakanishi (b. 1976). Their work investigates and challenges the preconceived notions of the graphic arts. Their experimental studio was established in 2006 in Chicago. Together, they explore the physical and psycho-physical nature of visualization through image-making, sculpture, writing, publishing, exhibitions, design, music, and performance. While they move through an array of media, their focus is on triangulating a deeper understanding of graphic expression at large.

Photo by David Bird — Photograph by David Bird

TAK ENSEMBLE:

Regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), TAK delivers energetic performances "that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” (WIRE Magazine). The ambitious ensemble “impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). Dedicated to the commissioning of new works and direct collaboration with artists working in a variety of disciplines, TAK promotes ambitious programming at the highest level.
The quintet has released four albums to critical acclaim, including Oor (2019), which launched their in-house media label TAK editions. This label creates broadly accessible platforms for audience engagement with a host of new music media with a focus on original TAK content. The ensemble's Youtube videos have been viewed 15,000 times, and the TAK Editions Podcast has received over 5,000 listens from across the globe.

TAK’s operations, including the rehearsing and recording of this album, occur on Lenape lands—Lenapehoking; we acknowledge the Lenpae as the original people of this land and their continuing relationship with their territory.