Conceived by the Iranian-Kurdish artist Hani Mojtahedy and musician and producer Andi Toma (Mouse on Mars) as a mythical fictional character, HJirok wanders through a soundscape consisting of processed field recordings, Sufi percussion and setar tracks recorded in the Iraqi part of Kurdistan.
The traditional and spiritual folk elements from Kurdistan and Iran are flanked by contemporary electronics and restaged in dub recording techniques in a way that allows their contours to unfold better.
Hani Mojtahedy is a star under her real name in all Kurdish regions (Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey). She was already known as a singer in Iran and founded the first female band in Sanandaj. Because her songs were increasingly subject to censorship and she was imprisoned three times in total, Mojtahedy decided to leave Iran in 2004 and has been living in exile in Berlin ever since. As HJirok, she now draws on the spirit of the past to formulate an emancipatory vision of the future.
For her solo project “Temporal Soundscapes”, multidisciplinary artist and graduated Kanun Player Yael Lavie enriches the meditative meandering spectrum of here instrument by electronics and drum-machine sounds. Driven by a fascination for spiritual music, electronic and experimental Jazz, Lavie, in addition to her work as a solo artist, was a member of the Band Spiritczualic Enhancement Center and leads the Trio Leviot.
