| arfan munir ezra rai 25,
is a young londoner, teacher/lecturer and writer of philosophy &
religion. arfan was born and raised in West London; Kew Gardens, and was
educated at Cambridge and the City University of London studying
Philosophy. the compositions featured by arfan span a period of two to
three years. during this period arfan travelled along the routes of his
own arabic, persian/samarkand ancestral routes visiting Yemen,
Libya, Syria, Socotra, Afghanistan, North Pakistan and Uzbekistan;Samarkand.
arfan's interests have emerged out of his concern that many of the traditional
islamic disciplines, esoterics and learning institutions were deiliberately
dismantled during and following the colonisation era. much of his youth
was spent visiting the locations recorded travelling with the bedouins
and nomadic people. realising that many of the world's oral traditions have
chosen to convey their message through the medium of sound,
arfan himself has chosen to study the relationship of sound
with religion & philosophy. arfan is a teacher and lecturer
in Philosophy and a member of the CTRC (Centre for Theology, Research
& Culture) at Kings College London. arfan also records under
two monikers: vizier of damascus and d m s c s.
vizier of damascus will be performing live in the Radio Taxi studio on
Sunday 29th May.
o n e h u n d r e d t h o u s a n d
b i r d s. 0.39 mins
khyber pass pakistan/china
recorded initially on minidisc whilst walking along the
khyber pass; deepest reaches of north pakistan, touching the himalayas
and bordering onto china. whilst walking with the local nomadic
tribe (from the hunza valley), ascending along a spiral stone
path/road, a flock of some one hundred thousand birds could be seen in
the distance. from a distance they seemed reminiscent of offset
parallelogram shapes, but different in this sense that the shapes were
constantly in flux. as the birds approached towards us, i made attempt
to record them. note the sounds of trucks also using the road.
s i t a r l o v e s o n
g 6.14 mins
lahore; punjab. east pakistan
recorded initially on minidisc in lahore; pakistan,
originally the traditional capital of India before the partition. the
older part of the city is extremely old, built out of stone. this recording
was made at a musician's house, after being introduced through a
friend.
h a d r a (mystical, meditative
gathering) 17.44 mins
damascus, syria.
recorded intially on tape. i am compelled to inform that of
many hadra's that i have attended, very rarely have i been moved to the
extent of tears and experiencing the ephemeral. i am fortunate and
blessed to have been present at one.sung in classical ancient arabic,
the hadra is a congregative meditative experience of solely the voice,
orchestrated and accoustically performed in a spiral like format. the spiral
is represented through the patterns of the song, and similarly to
how one's experience of a spiral hastens towards the centre,
so the chanting also reflects this in its measured tones. the architecture
of many traditional mosques compliment the human voice, as the geometrical
dimensions of pillars, domes and walls, seem specifically designed to
distribute sound panoramically around the buildings. the spiral in Sufism/Islam
represents the inward motion and trajectory of the soul at realising the
oneness of God/reality. It is through one's subjective, infinite soul,
a drop of the divine, whereby one is able to reach a point of infinity.
a point of union with the divine consciousness. the subjects
of hadra's are centered around the praising of God's attributes, thus
the only fathomable manner how we as humans are epistemelogically
able to understand God, and therefore also by praising the apex, the epitome
of God's communication to mankind . . . the Prophet Muhammad
(p.b.u.h)
d o t.7.38mins
hadramaut, yemen.
electroaccoustic composition exploring the desert storms of the hadramaut
valley in yemen. here the accoustic narrative explores the evolution of
a storm, as it interacts with the objects of a mud house exposed in the
desert.
k a l a m t h e o l
o g y w h e e l 4.29mins
electroaccoustic composition exploring the narrative of the soul as a
wheel. kalam in islamic philosophy roughly translates as theology. in
this composition, the soul as represented by a wheel, has an off-centre,
and thus its movement are irregular struggling to find harmonious movement/revolution.
towards the end of the composition the centre of the wheel slowly moves
towards the centre and thus the sounds begin to move towards the realisation
and semblanceof harmony.
i n w a r d s u f i a s c e n
t s 6.4 mins
electronica composition exploring a personal experience of sufi
meditations.
rather ephemeral and monastic.
h u n z a v a l l e y l a m e n t 2.25mins
hunza valley;pakistan.
a mystical lament from the hunza valley exploring the paradoxical teaching
of yearning the return of a passed relative only for the
reason to be taught how to let go of this life of dense material
things. "we come into this world crying and in despair
with everyone around us joyful and smiling, and we should leave this
world smiling and joyful with everyone around us crying and in despair."
t r i b u t e t o
r u m i 2.45mins
konya, turkey.
playing of duduc flutes in Konya, the birthplace of Jalal Al Din Rumi.
d m s c s.2v 2.25mins
electroaccoustic composition exploring the internal didactic relationship between
my mind and soul.
|