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KAMRAN SADEGHI ︎ABOUT



Kamran Sadeghi belongs to nowhere but the moment. Sadeghi’s diverse body of work in disciplines such as scoring for film and choreography, live performance, audio and video art and electronic music can be attributed to the use of sound as a sculptural material. Kamran’s music is something you enter; it is physical, hyper-magnified with unexpected shifts and sharp punctuations that draw lines in space with sound.

As an Iranian-born American and diasporic child of a revolution, Kamran experienced isolation and an inability to mirror their surroundings. This circumstance solidified their embrace of the world as a nonconformist, a perspective distinctly reflected in their singular work

Sadeghi emerged in 2005’s live improv, electro-acoustic, computer music scene under the moniker ‘Son of Rose’ receiving routine critical acclaim in The WIRE Magazine, sharing the stage with Fennesz, Tim Hecker and Vladislav Delay. Kamran worked for legendary composer Morton Subotnick, and one of the first galleries dedicated to multi-channel Sound Art, Diapason. As a sound designer Sadeghi recently worked with Matthew Herbert on the UK series TEMPLE.

Kamran’s album Disappearing Music (for Nam June Paik) was recorded while using the Paik/Abe “Wobbulator”. “Loss Less” was recorded live inside a defunct nuclear cooling tower and the audiovisual installation premiered at the Louvre Museum (Paris) and HKW (Berlin). Kamran’s soundtrack “Approximation” was in the group show 'Broken Music Vol.2' at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Kamran’s collaborative album, ’42.41’ is with installation artist Zimoun. Other distinguished collaborations include Patti Smith, Jean-Luc Godard, Nan Goldin and Sasha Waltz.

Recordings and productions are published on Sternberg Press, Vinyl Factory, LINE, SUPERPANG, Sacred Bones, Opal Tapes, Apollo Records and Dragon's Eye Recordings. As a music curator at platforms such as Fridman Gallery, Public Records and e-flux/Bar Laika Kamran has worked with Marina Rosenfeld, Aho Ssan, DeForrest Brown Jr., James Hoff, Unseen Worlds, Bergsonist, Unsound Festival, Gábor Lázár, Qasim Naqvi, Ghostly Int., Afrikan Sciences among others.

Sadeghi’s performances, soundtracks, collaborations and installations have been experienced at Kraftwerk-MaersMusic(DE) Louvre Museum(FR), HKW(DE), ICA(Boston), La Gaîté Lyrique (FR), Corcoran Gallery of Art(DC), CTM Festival(DE), KOW Gallery(DE), MUDAM(Luxembourg), MuCEM(Marseille), Centre Pompidou(FR), Berghain(DE) and Berlin Biennale.

From 2010 to 2018, Sadeghi was vital in the transition of the audio tour guide company, Soundwalk, into the group Soundwalk Collective. As a founding member, lead composer, sound artist, live performance director, music producer and co-creative director, Kamran developed, directed and produced the companies very first live performances and official music albums

︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ RA ︎ ︎ ︎ 


KAMRAN SADEGHI ︎Disappearing Music (for Nam June Paik)  

 





Kamran Sadeghi returns to LINE with a work utilizing the Wobbulator, a 1970s video synthesizer of the founder of video art, Nam June Paik. Sadeghi’s previous LINE release was 2020’s Loss Less (LINE_110).

Soon after screening audiovisual works in the Seoul International Computer Music Festival in 2009, Kamran began his first artist residency at the Experimental Television Center (E.T.C.) in New York using the Nam June Paik’s Wobbulator—a video synthesizer made out of a modified black and white television monitor. A kind of prepared TV with its coils and tubes exposed.

In order to generate patterns you need to send it control voltage and the only way to record the image displayed is by rescanning the screen with a video camera. Inspired by the Wobbulator’s minimalistic design and Paik’s own work with the physicality of sound, Kamran decided to forego traditional musical notation and create pulses, clicks and pops using the E.T.C. studios Doepfer A-100 system and Korg MS-20 synthesizer.

These sounds were used to activate the the Wobbulator and generate electromagnetic patterns. For 5 days Sadeghi lived inside of the E.T.C. studio full of cultural history, 50 years of artistic legacy and inventive electricity. This release contains selected parts recorded live in 2009, mixed in 2022 and shared for the first time.

“I think sound is time sequence. And then if it contains content, like narratives, then it becomes movie, theater… if music has no power to let you enjoy it without seeing, then it’s not great music.”
—Nam June Paik, 1983

Catalog: LINE_145 Format: digital Edition: open edition Release: October 2023
Tracklist:
1. Day One (06:54)
2. Day One Part Two (03:08)
3. Day Three (06:08)
4. Day Three Part Two (03:06)
5. Day Four (10:03)
6. Day Five (04:19)
7. Day Five Part Two (07:42)
8. Day Five Part Three (01:36)

Performed, Mixed, Mastered: Kamran Sadeghi
Made possible by the Experimental Television Center


LINE RELEASE PAGE
https://www.lineimprint.com/editions/sound/line_145/

BANDCAMP ORDERING PAGE
https://lineimprint.bandcamp.com/album/disappearing-music-for-nam-june-paik





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KAMRAN SADEGHI -> Loss Less



Friday Feb.26 15h CET | Loss Less | Rencontres International Paris/Berlin at Musée du Louvre | Installation multimédia | mov | couleur | 22:53 | USA | 2021

“Loss Less” is a site-specific audiovisual work recorded inside of the defunct nuclear cooling tower Satsop. In the 1970’s, the U.S. was more than 20 years into its nuclear power program. In Washington State, a consortium of public utilities began what was to be the largest single nuclear power project in the country’s history. The construction was suspended shortly before the facility was completed and what remains is a structure 129 meters across at the base, and rising to a height of nearly 152 meters. Kamran Sadeghi used its natural acoustics to compose and reshape sound, capturing the architectural integrity and holistic immediacy of the nuclear cooling tower, while symbolically removing its entire existence. Maintaining an emphasis on the sound, Sadeghi created a 3D abstraction from a still taken on location. The title ‘Loss Less’ is derived from the term lossless compression - a process that allows for the preservation and perfect reconstruction of data (audio). In this case the audio was not preserved, but intentionally degraded. 


Loss Less
Kamran Sadeghi



FORMAT: Music Album, Live Concert, Sound Installation,

PERFORMANCES: UCLA ART/SCI Center

released March 13, 2020

Composed, Mixed, Mastered: Kamran Sadeghi
Residency: Environmental Aesthetics
Photo: Richard Worsfold

TOOLS: Original: Stereo Mic, Stereo PA System, Pro-Tools.  Rework: Modular Synthesis, FFT, Live Processing, Ableton.

In 2008 Kamran Sadeghi was selected resident artist at Satsop. Inspired by Alvin Lucier’s “I am Sitting In A Room” (1970)—Sadeghi amplified an original electronic music passage with a length of 2 minutes into the open aired structure and recorded the outcome of the tower's acoustic response. This recording was then re-amplified back into the structure and re-recorded. The process was repeated ten times, and with each cycle the natural acoustics of the tower began to reshape the original passage until it disappeared entirely. This approach captured the architectural integrity and holistic immediacy of the nuclear cooling tower while symbolically removing it’s entire existence.

he result is a unique 25 minute sonic experience full of audible artifacts that document space, time and our environment. The composition was created on location and in real-time, allowing all natural elements such as wind, rain, wildlife, resonance and feedback-distortion to be a part in the process and therefore the end result. No post production effects were used.

The ‘Rework’ version is a studio interpretation recorded live using samples of the original composition, processed through effects and used as a guide for added atmospheric electronic tones as counterpoint. The large throbbing bass drum pattern emphasizes the weight and physicality of the cooling tower, while recalling a sacred ceremonial chants or drums used to converse with or drive away destructive spirits.

The title ‘Loss Less’ is a play on the term lossless compression—a type of process that allows for the preservation and and perfect reconstruction of data (audio). In this case the audio was not preserved, but intentionally degraded. The title also taps into the reality of catastrophic loss and destruction caused by nuclear energy.









Mark
KAMRAN SADEGHI ︎NOW

Sunday, December 10 from 6pm Playback welcomes Canary Records, a label specializing in early twentieth-century folk masterpieces (mostly) in languages other than English. Founder Ian Nagoski is a music researcher and reissue record producer in Baltimore, Maryland who specializes in early twentieth-century recordings with a focus on the musics of immigrants. Over the past fifteen years, he has produced albums for Dust-to-Digital, Tompkins Square, Mississippi, Important, the Database of Recorded American Music, and his own Canary Records label among others. He travels and lectures across the US and Europe. In 2022, he co-authored and published the book and CD Zabelle Panosian: I am Servant of Your Voice.

Playback is a series of listening events curated by Kamran Sadeghi where record labels, musicians, composers, and producers feature recordings from their catalog, and premiere album pre-releases, archives, and other rarities.

e-flux events page





WILD LIFE | Sep 8 - Oct 14
Location: Gabriele Senn Galerie, Vienna
Curator: Raphael Oberhuber
Artist: Kamran Sadeghi
Title: Wild Life
Medium: Sound
Length: 05:00 ( Loop Synced )
Edition: 1
Inquiries: office@galeriesenn.at



SPECTRAL 08.29.23 at Public Records
Kyoka LIVE (JP, raster-media ) - Kamran Sadeghi LIVE - Løt.te DJ


TICKETS
It’s another edition of Spectral, an exploratory and immersive evening led by composer, record producer and interdisciplinary artist Kamran Sadeghi. Informed by his own experiments around the physicality of sound, the nighto examines the many forms that music can take in the hands of innovative daring sound artists and composers. For this edition, we welcome the experimental Japanese musician and composer, Kyoko. With a penchant for chaos, she cobbles together glitchy pop-beats with danceable rhythms, resulting in a sound as confounding as it is transfixing. With releases on labels such as Raster-Noton and Onpa))))), she has a home in the unpredictable. Løt.te has performed globally both live and as a dj, at venues such as Berghain (BER), Pickle Factory (LON) and Contact (TOK). Limited tickets will available at the door.





Introducing a new listening series "Playback" -  Join us for the launch this Sunday April 23rd at Bar Laika by e-flux - 6-9PM  - free 

Playback is a series of listening events curated by Kamran Sadeghi where record labels, musicians, composers, and producers will feature recordings from their catalog, premiere album pre-releases, archives, and other rarities. For the first edition of Playback, Unseen Worlds label founder Tommy McCutchon will play the record label’s vinyl releases and more.

Unseen Worlds is a record label releasing quality editions of unheralded and revolutionary yet accessible avant-garde music. We are interested in media that captures a timeless ecstasy of creativity, that seem out of space, alien, yet are deeply resonant and approachable. They are both primary and mysterious. They contain multitudes, engaging the listener through their historical context and sheer musicality. Our releases are surprisingly disparate and reliable.

https://www.e-flux.com/live/


Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin – Broken Music Vol. II. includes 12” LP Soundtrack “Approximation”

My soundtrack “Approximation” is part of the group show at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. With works and records from various artists, including: Laurie Anderson, Katja Aufleger, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Douglas Gordon, Romuald Hazoumè, Anne Imhof, Christina Kubisch, Bernhard Leitner, Robert Lippok, Christian Marclay, Carsten Nicolai, Emeka Ogboh, Nam June Paik, Wolfgang Tillmans, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner and many more.

Original Score for “Approximation" in the digital age for a humanity condemned to disappear” by Mario Pfeifer

Published by: Sternberg Press

“Broken Music Vol.2” Curated by Sven Beckstette and Ingrid Buschmann





Magnetic Moments
Label: SUPERPANG

Filigree, liminal, ambient/noise sculpture composed and mixed in binaural settings, sounds best with headphones but also rewards with speaker play. RIYL Christina Kubisch, Kevin Drumm, Thought Broadcast, CMvH - Boomkat






Spectral, the exploratory and immersive event series and residency led by Iranian-born composer, record producer and interdisciplinary artist Kamran Sadeghi teams up with Unsound to present solo performances by Warsaw-based composer Resina and Paris-based electronic musician Aho Ssan in the Sound Room. Tickets RA / DICE






Spectral Blur, the exploratory and immersive event series led by Iranian-born musician, composer, record producer and interdisciplinary artist Kamran Sadeghi, returns for another edition in the Sound Room. For this installment Sadeghi has invited Monterrey-born, Texas-reared, NYC-based producer and DJ Delia Beatriz aka DEBIT.














Friday Feb.26 15h CET | Loss Less | Rencontres International Paris/Berlin at Musée du Louvre | Installation multimédia | mov | couleur | 22:53 | USA | 2021 

“Loss Less” is a site-specific audiovisual work recorded inside of the defunct nuclear cooling tower Satsop. In the 1970’s, the U.S. was more than 20 years into its nuclear power program. In Washington State, a consortium of public utilities began what was to be the largest single nuclear power project in the country’s history. The construction was suspended shortly before the facility was completed and what remains is a structure 129 meters across at the base, and rising to a height of nearly 152 meters. Kamran Sadeghi used its natural acoustics to compose and reshape sound, capturing the architectural integrity and holistic immediacy of the nuclear cooling tower, while symbolically removing its entire existence. Maintaining an emphasis on the sound, Sadeghi created a 3D abstraction from a still taken on location. The title ‘Loss Less’ is derived from the term lossless compression - a process that allows for the preservation and perfect reconstruction of data (audio). In this case the audio was not preserved, but intentionally degraded. The title also expresses the reality of catastrophic loss and destruction caused by nuclear energy, and the call for less.





“42.21” - a collaboration with Zimoun on Leerraum
Zimoun is most known for his minimalist sound sculptures, sound architectures and installation art that combine raw, industrial materials with mechanical elements.  Zimoun is one of the founders of the label Leerraum, he works in the fields of contemporary minimalism, sound art, installation, and composition.
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Although Kamran and Zimoun maintained contact after meeting each other in 2012, this is their first recording together.  Hopefully not the last.




Between Us was created using field recordings captured with DIY contact microphones attached to the glass window of Sadeghi’s home in Brooklyn. These protective barriers in the buildings we inhabit operate as a filter from the outside elements. Sadeghi describes the impulse of "wanting to hear the sound outside as it was being transformed to what I was hearing inside." Each recording's tonal slips due to the presence of sonic artifacts such as resonance, noise, low rumble, feedback, and cyclical hum (caused, in part, by the microphones' excessive gain) suggests a gauzy, shifting passage of time at a distance.






“Spectral Blur”
Spectral Blur is a series questioning the categorization of music by exploring recordings from sound workers, composers and artists who’s works catch us by surprise.  Having their own resonance, rhythm and frequencies, often made by altered or non-traditional instruments, musicians continue to challenge our vocabulary rendering classification obsolete.
Hosted by: Public Records / Public Access - Curated by: Kamran Sadeghi





“Loss Less”
A site specific soudn piece recorded inside of a nuclear cooling tower.
LABEL: LINE
DATE: MARCH 13 2020
AVAILABLE: Bandcamp (link below)






“Music For Pictures No.3”
“These evocative pieces by composer Kamran Sadeghi use disquiet and dissonance to open imaginary cinematic worlds”
-Bandcamp on Music For Pictures No.3

“Complex Headphone Mindfuck”
-The Stranger (Dave Segal) on Music For Pictures No.3







"Music For Pictures No.2"
“These evocative pieces by composer Kamran Sadeghi use disquiet and disonance to open imaginary cinematic worlds.” - Bandcamp








“Music For Pictures No.1”
The first in a new a new series of releases exploring Kamran’s film score, soundtrack and sound design catalog.








‘Uder The Peace Flag‘
feat. Hanne Lippard recorded at KW Institute Berlin
remixes from Sateq [Ateq + Sa Pa] & Steve O'Sullivan
Label: Cl.Series




Mark