Last year, we took a closer look at the underground electronic music scene in Iran, specifically focusing on techno and experimental music, and the scene that exists around the music in the country’s capital, Tehran.
One of the producers featured in that piece was Sote, the project of Ata Ebtekar, who has been producing music for over a decade, recently finding a regular home on prolific tape-centric label Opal Tapes. He’s also released with Warp and Rabih Beaini’s Morphine label, but his latest record, Sacred Horror In Design, finds him returning to Opal Tapes.
Comprised of six tracks, the record finds Ebtekar moving between the noisy experimentation of past work and the traditional influences of his home country. Streaming above to give you a taste of the record ahead of its release on Friday (July 28) is ‘Plebeian’, a 10-minute piece which drifts between drone-laden harsh electronics and the aforementioned traditional music of Iran, the combination growing heavier with each passing minute.
The record was developed from a commission by CTM Festival earlier this year, which saw Ebtekar collaborate on an audiovisual project with Tarik Barri, working with CTM’s 2017 theme of ‘Fear Anger Love’ and looking at its relationship with his childhood following the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Across the record, he collaborates with Arash Bolouri who plays the santour (a Persian hammered dulcimer) and Behrouz Pashaei on the long-necked, four-string setar, both of which can be found on the track above, alongside the Kamancheh, an Iranian bowed string instrument played by Kian Farahani.
You can pre-order the record directly from Opal Tapes ahead of its Friday release here.
