Sormeh

Golnar Shahyar and Mona Matbou Riahi, both from Iran, and Jelena Popržan from Serbia have come together in Vienna to form this exciting trio which, ranging in repertoire from Oriental to Balkan music, found its cosmopolitan compromise in the traditions of Jewish Music and in idiosyncratic arrangements and improvisational ardor. All three musicians were introduced to each other for the first time at the Oficina Art Orchestra under the direction of Alegre Corrêa. Riahi and Shahyar both already had experience interpreting Persian Music with their trio Gabbeh. Golnar Shahyar and her band Choub have been concentrating on playing Jazz inspired by Persian tradition, and Mona Matbouh Riahi, youngest member and chief poet of the band, has been on stage with greats like Alim Qasimov, Dijvan Gasparyan, and Aynur Doĝan. Jelena Popržan has been a fixture on the Austrian music scene for several years now with her duo Catch-Pop String-Strong and the quartett Popržan/Jokić/Neuner/Petrova. Persian, Yiddish, Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Sephardic songs, smoking instrumental Klezmer- and Balkan broadsides, poetry set to music, timeless chansons, and original compositions, this is music that dissolves mental and stylistic reservations. It is elegant and mysterious like eyeliner on Oriental eyes, precisely the meaning of the Persian word "Sormeh".