Niyaz is an acoustic electronic project that brings together three prominent musical figures to form an exciting new fusion of traditional Persian music and modern electronics..
Vocalist and composer Azam Ali, one of the founding members of the acclaimed group Vas was born in Iran, raised in India and moved to The United State as a teenager.
Multi instrumentalist and composer Ramin (Loga) Torkian of Axiom of Choice was also born in Iran and moved to the United states as a teenager. His extensive travels combined with his in-depth understanding of Persian music and Indian culture and spirituality have enabled him to cultivate a sound that is extremely authentic, yet can lend itself to the modern framework within which the music is created.
Twice Grammy nominee producer/ remixer Carmen Rizzo is one of the most in demand producer- programmers on the electronic dance scene today. He has worked with artists ranging from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Khaled, Seal, Paul Oakenfold & Cirque Du Soleil bringing his unique approach to beats and electronic textures..
These three veteran masters have all experienced success on their own and have found a new common ground in Niyaz where the mystical poetry of Urdu and Persian Sufi poets of the 14th and 15th century forms the lyrical framework for a fresh new musical adventure…amazon.com
On their sophomore release, Niyaz continues to bridge the gap between traditional and modern world music. This double CD (featuring one disc of electronic and one disc of acoustic versions of the tracks) reveals a complex body of work. Nine Heavens features intricately carved new arrangements of traditional folk songs as well as original compositions utilizing mystical Sufi poems from Iran, the Indian sub-continent and
Turkey…sixdegreesrecords.com
Sufism, an ancient muslim mystical tradition, aims to practice Islam in all its purity and has been perpetrated by Dervish brotherhoods. Here is the strange liturgy of the Whirling Dervishes during which voices ponctuated by the ney, the kemanche, the kanun and the bendir, lead us towards the discovery of an unexpected world where joy is born of incantation; thus exalted by music and dance, the Dervish rises bove the things of this earth.