Monthly Archives: November 2010

Tone 42 – Sohrab “A Hidden Place”

LP – 6 tracks – 40:20 + free download: Aamookhtan Baraye Zistan (42:46) when you buy the vinyl from the TouchShop

Mastered by Denis Blackham
Cut by Jason @ Transition
Photography by Jon Wozencroft

Track listing:

side one
Susanna (9:51)
Somebody (5:59)
Pedagogicheskaya Poema (3:28)

side two
Himmel Über Tehran (5:31)
A Hidden Place (9:27)
Zarrin (6:16)

Sohrab was born in Tehran in 1984. He was seven when the Iran-Iraq war ended. His name, from an old poem called ‘Shahname’, means ‘rouge water’, which can also mean ‘blood’. He started a punk band with his brother and a friend, which lasted about two years before splitting. Sohrab is totally isolated in Iran, with little or no connection to what is happening there. Sohrab is, like so many, displaced within his own country and occupies a similar internal cultural isolation. This is suggested by Jon Wozencroft’s imagery and artwork; looking in through shattered glass and an air of menace underneath the surface.
He recently performed live at Berghain for a Touch night, with Fennesz, Hildur Gudnadottir and others. It was his first legal gig since a performance by his punk band was broken up by the police in Tehran…

He is currently seeking status as a political refugee…

Sohrab used Reason 3, his midi controller (R)evolution UC-16 and a sampler, recorded live through Ambrosia recording software.

You can listen to his contribution to TouchRadio, “Tanhayi – Live in Tehran”, recorded in October 2009

و چنان بی تابم، که دلم می خواهد
بدوم تا ته دشت، بروم تا سر کوه
دورها آوایی است، که مرا می خواند

so restless am i that i wish
to run to the end of the plain,
to top of the mountain
there is a voice in the distance,
that is calling me
(Sohrab Sepehri)

Visit Sohrab’s website here

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Jon Wozencroft on Resonancefm | Thursday 11th November 2010

Thu, 11 November, 15:00 – 16:00

Designer and writer Adrian Shaughnessy’s weekly programme discussing issues surrounding design.

Adrian Shaughnessy talks to Jon Wozencroft who runs the multimedia publishing company Touch, which he describes as a “an alternative vision of audio-visual publishing.” Artists who Wozencroft works with at Touch include: Oren Ambarchi, Biosphere, Fennesz and Phil Niblock. After attending the London College of Printing, Wozencroft worked as a freelance writer, designer, editor and programme-maker. In 1986 he was invited by Neville Brody to be the author the book The Graphic Language of Neville Brody. It was published in April 1988, and a major exhibition of the same name was held at The Victoria and Albert Museum which Wozencroft co-curated with Brody. In 1990, they started the FUSE project, of which Wozencroft is the editor. He is currently Senior Tutor in the Communication Art and Design Department at the Royal College of Art.

www.graphicdesignontheradio.com