Siavash Amini

Siavash Amini is an Iranian composer and musician whose work ranges from fragile ambient pieces and brittle IDM (incorporating his distinctive style of atmospheric guitar playing) to noisy drones and bleak modern classical pieces. His compositions have been inspired by films such as Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror as well as novels by <a href="spotify:artist:7GDDTwiPJnrechnyJ83BXb">Dostoyevsky</a> and poems by <a href="spotify:artist:3bDa6cxOSTdU4tkmFgNSpA">T.S. Eliot</a>. His notable releases include the lush, haunting Till Human Voices Wake Us (2014) and the dark, uncompromising TAR (2017). He has collaborated with artists including <a href="spotify:artist:6AdRO941ZEDh4GHcCUdEs4">Rafael Anton Irisarri</a>, Saåad, <a href="spotify:artist:3Bxpc8rnHsOJKDzheOJtcd">Matt Finney</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0vdqqdQ1dlkVkYYkhyomvB">9T Antiope</a>. Eremos, a set of delicate electroacoustic pieces, appeared in 2023.

Amini released three albums in 2012: the glitchy Spotty Surfaces (with Hessam Ohadi and Nima Pourkarimi) and The Waterfront, as well as the ambient Storm Leaves Us Quietly. Following 2014's Till Human Voices Wake Us, his work became much darker and more distorted, incorporating orchestral instrumentation as well as granular processing. What Wind Whispered to the Trees and Subsiding were both released by Futuresequence. Arriving in 2016, Familial Rot was Amini's first collaboration with spoken word artist <a href="spotify:artist:3Bxpc8rnHsOJKDzheOJtcd">Matt Finney</a>. During 2017, Amini's solo album TAR was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hallow+Ground%22">Hallow Ground</a>, and he contributed to <a href="spotify:artist:6AdRO941ZEDh4GHcCUdEs4">Rafael Anton Irisarri</a>'s LP The Shameless Years. Another collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:3Bxpc8rnHsOJKDzheOJtcd">Finney</a>, Gospel, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Opal+Tapes%22">Opal Tapes</a> in 2018. The following year saw no fewer than three albums by Amini: Harmistice on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hallow+Ground%22">Hallow Ground</a>, a collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:0vdqqdQ1dlkVkYYkhyomvB">9T Antiope</a>; another album with <a href="spotify:artist:3Bxpc8rnHsOJKDzheOJtcd">Finney</a>, Second Shift, once again on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Opal+Tapes%22">Opal Tapes</a>; and Serus, Amini's debut for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Room40%22">Room40</a>. That label also reissued remastered versions of What Wind Whispered to the Trees and Subsiding.

The beginning of 2020 brought All Lanes of Lilac Evening, a nature-inspired ambient collaboration with Saåad. This was followed by the stand-alone piece "Lardaskan" (with <a href="spotify:artist:6AdRO941ZEDh4GHcCUdEs4">Irisarri</a>) and solo work A Mimesis of Nothingness. A Trail of Laughters was issued in 2021, and Amini collaborated with <a href="spotify:artist:69l2nkHclpJMHqqgDuo8MW">SaffronKeira</a> for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Denovali%22">Denovali</a>-issued The Faded Orbit. Songs for Sad Poets, created with philosopher, professor, and author <a href="spotify:artist:4DZvOYyJFkzV2zG4i1Uycl">Eugene Thacker</a>, appeared in 2022. Amini's 18-minute piece Not Yet Plant-Life, No Longer Flesh, was issued in early 2023. The same year saw the album Eidolon released, and another 18-minute composition, The Sweat of Earth. Eremos, inspired by Iranian philosopher-poet Ibn Sina's novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, was issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22American+Dreams+Records%22">American Dreams Records</a> in 2023. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi