Saba Alizadeh: "Sounds carry stories that must be heard"

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4 days ago
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Saba Alizadeh, born in Tehran in 1983, is an Iranian musician known for blending traditional instruments like the kamancheh with electronic and experimental sound practices. Trained in experimental sound design at CalArts in Los Angeles, he creates music that merges tradition with innovation, often addressing social and political themes. He is active both as a virtuoso kamancheh player and as an experimental composer. Alizadeh is the founder of Noise Works, a sound art platform based in Tehran, and is also an internationally recognized photographer. He is the son of renowned musician Hossein Alizadeh, with whom he has toured globally.

Your musical career spans both traditional Iranian music and experimental electronic music. How do you reconcile these two distinct worlds in your work, and what challenges come with blending such different musical languages?

I do not think of these two sound worlds as separate.Due to the passion I have for treating different sound sources ,I often create sounds that are farway from their original source; it could be either a traditional Iranian instrument like Kamancheh or electronic sounds.

At the end they are frequencies, timbers and textures of the same palate that I use to create and tell a story with, so I guess the reconciliation comes naturally in a way.

Your new track "I Roared My Justice", reflects your unique approach to electronic music. What does this composition represent to you, and how does it tie into your artistic philosophy of treating sound as an object?

This special track is built around the phrase "I roared my justice", taken from Navid Afkari’s last phone call from prison. Afkari, a 27-year-old wrestling champion, was executed for murder — a charge brought by the Iranian judiciary, which he denied. He was never given a fair trial and was reportedly told he would be released the next day — a day that turned out to be his last.

The phrase underwent heavy sound processing, forming the foundation of the track’s textural palette. Layered over this are pulses from a modular synthesizer and the raw, distorted tones of the kamancheh.

In your work, you use instruments like the kamancheh, no-input mixer, and modular synthesizer, as well as historical recordings and samples. How do you select and manipulate these sounds to create a sense of narrative or emotion?

It all comes down to the concept behind the piece I’m working on.

Lately, I’ve been incorporating historical sound recordings with strong social and political significance. As a result, I choose the other elements of my sonic palette in dialogue with those recordings.

Your work extends beyond music into photography, as seen in your series Light & Soil. How do your music and visual art intertwine, and what connections do you see between these two creative mediums?

Incorporating live visuals into my concerts is still a work in progress.But the intersection of music and visual art has already found its place in my creative process, just in a different form.

Often, it begins with an image in my mind.Sometimes rooted in personal experience, other times purely abstract — a fleeting vision. From there, I begin to compose a soundtrack for it — first in my imagination, then in sound.

It feels much like creating a staged photograph using light painting: You shape the scene, set the moment, and then illuminate it — letting the light reveal what was always there.

As the founder of Noise Works in Tehran, you've played an important role in promoting sound art and music in Iran. What impact do you think this platform has had on the contemporary music scene in Iran, and what are your hopes for the future of sound art in the country?

I would be honored if my work has had any impact on the contemporary scene. While living in Tehran — before moving to the Netherlands nearly two years ago — I organized workshops and performances through Noiseworks. These events were not frequent, as I produced them independently, with the support of a few friends and funded them personally. Despite these limitations, the gatherings resonated with a community eager to think differently about music — to question, dismantle, and reimagine its boundaries.

Thanks to my work with Noiseworks and my academic background in experimental music, I was invited to consult for one of Tehran’s leading art schools, contributing to the development of their Sound Technology program. During that time, I also held a workshop and performance for Andreas Spechtl.

Today, Noiseworks continues its mission as a platform, now focusing on releasing music and curating shows for experimental and electronic musicians. It recently released the impeccable album Imaginary Crisis by Arshan Najafi, a rising voice in Iran’s experimental scene, and is preparing to release a new album by Vesal Javaheri.