Samimi Mofakham, Idin
Born in 1982, an Iranian composer-performer whose music is deeply rooted in the traditional and regional music of his home country. Since 2015 he has been developing his own musical language based on non-Western tuning systems, just intonation, and psychoacoustics. In 2023 he received his PhD from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo with a research thesis on medieval tuning systems from Iran and their creative use in contemporary composition.
He is a co-founder and artistic manager of Spectro Centre for New Music. Between 2015 and 2019, he was a board member and senior curator of the Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, the only international festival focusing on contemporary and experimental music in Iran. He plays in the experimental band Spectro Duo, which he founded with his wife, composer Martyna Kosecka. Their musical focus is on drone, noise, beat phenomena, glitch, field recording transformation, microtonality and oriental modalities.
His music has been performed or recorded by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, S.E.M Ensemble, Hermes Ensemble, Omnibus Ensemble, Moto Perpetuo, AuditivVokal Dresden, Momenta Quartet, IAMA Trio, Ostravská Banda, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Xelmya Trio, Oslo Sinfonietta, Abbyss Quartet and, in Iran, most notably by Nivak Ensemble and Nilper Orchestra.
Selected works: October Diaries for piano (2012), Hommage à Abolhasan Saba for violin and cello (2012), Mirage... for violin, viola, cello and water (2012), Rajaz, concerto for tenor horn and chamber ensemble (2013), Hesâr for recorder, violin and cello (2013), Hommage à Komitas for soprano and chamber ensemble (2014), Ludus Consonus X for chamber ensemble (2014), Truth. Courage. Freedom for vocal ensemble (2014), Holography, concerto for piano and strings (2015), Muye I for vocal ensemble (2016), At the waters of Lethe, opera in one act to a libretto by Martyna Kosecka (2016), ReSearch for vocal ensemble (2017), Splashes, five sonoristic etudes for ensemble (2017), Zurvan for large orchestra (2018), Siyâh Mashq III for harpsichord (2018), ÂVÂZ for trombone and electronics (2019), ... of struggle and hope for contrabass quartet and electronics (2020), Ketâb al-Advâr for microtonally retuned piano (2020), Crystallum for string quartet and electronics (2021), Mantiq Al-Tayr: The Conference of the Birds for santur, percussion, ensemble, electronics and video (2022), Abjad Dream for retuned piano and electronics (2022), 4C2 for percussion (2022), Taftâl for sixth-tone harmonium (2023), Darkness is your candle for large ensemble (2023), Lead.Asphalt.Blood for contrabass, baritone saxophone, and accordion (2024), Nafir for contrabass quartet, orchestra and electronics (2024), Blood did not seep into the ground for flute, saxophone, e-guitar, piano, percussion, violin, cello and tape (2024).