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Hi friends,

It’s been a little while. I’ll be putting this longer newsletter in sections. Moving forward, for ease of reading, upcoming bits and bobs will be at the bottom, as is a link for buying music and merch etc.

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Last newsletter I sent was in advance of starting the launch tour of Ocean, Again, my recent solo Floors album. I played in Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart, and had the wonderful opportunity to hear Chloe Kim’s opening solo drum kit sets, which was enthralling each time. Along that trip, I had the wonderful chance to perform Indeterminacy 2.0, with Jacques Emery. This performance, which was one of the most enjoyable, heart-warming and soul-satisfying ones for me so far this year, was a tribute ‘with loving disobedience’ to Cage and Tudor’s Indeterminacy record.

Working with Jacques was such a joy. The depth of his understanding of and care with Cage’s work, his boundless interest in sound and listening, and his absolute generosity as a collaborator were so important for me to be able to be a part of. In an otherwise pressurized situation, I remembered what the point of all of this is! This work came exactly when I needed it; to have the opportunity to step outside of ‘my’ practice and make work that uses some of my first hooks into composing and playing was valuable. I don’t know about you all, but I definitely have the tendency to get stuck into my own tiny borders I’ve drawn for what I do and not letting myself remember that making music for me isn’t about me, but about making music, the feeling of it, connecting with and through it, listening to it, and having a richer experience of being alive.

Just after I got back, I had to sit with a period of serious immobilities at home, facing an injury that had stopped me on my tracks. I contended with what it means for my practice, what if I can’t play the Floors again.

That’s how a new set came to be, which I played recently at the Augmented Instruments Lab, Queen Mary University of London. I also gave an open seminar about my relationship with the Floors and all I’ve learned about my practice in the process of adapting it and reshaping it in relation to this injury. You can watch the seminar, which was a really fun time, here.

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There was a moment I was very scared that it was all over, but now, I feel like I’m swimming in music for the first time again. It’s really lovely to feel like I have a whole practice of music and a real relationship with sound that goes beyond what is immediately possible or available. This is giving me a lot of warmth and strength.

It’s been a year of being on the road a lot. I’ve made new friends who have changed my whole outlook on technology, what we do. our purpose, and our communities. In a field that is often described by its points of difference, I’ve finally had a year where I’ve spent more time playing than troubleshooting, singing than editing, and musicking than tech-ing (no h8 to tech-ing).

It’s almost December and right now, I’m reflecting on conversations that have made me feel like I am a part of a family of practice. I am so lucky to be able to make work with people I admire and whose work is really rich for me to engage with. I feel far less lonely in my own endeavours as a result.

Then the most amazing thing happened; I got to spend a few days with my uncle and his family. Singing songs I knew with my cousin and learning new ones together was the most healing thing I could do. I was sore and travel-exhausted, with a weak body and an exhausted mind, getting more and more energy from hearing us try to be in tune, me and this amazing young cellist! After so many years of being apart and patiently wading through the load of migration and loss, I finally feel less like a fractured set of idiosyncrasies and instead a member of a continuum with my own variations, deviations and additions to the story. Love's got a lot to do with it. Having people who are my family through the life I live in sound meeting the family that has shaped who I am in the same room while I play impact sockets from a hardware store opened up this new inner peace (which I hope I can hold on to - I don't always find that easy).
But that’s not it by itself. I’ve had a couple of years of slowly relating to music in more fun ways, and playing mandolin and singing songs. Having a mando on the road with me has been so great. The hour before we played the Guthman concert, I was playing scales out the back of the Ferst centre. On November 217, before the concert, I found a spot at Queen Mary for a couple of songs. Each time, I had all the advice from my friends, the memory of each session of singing the songs, and my excitement about getting better kept me company. On the road, at various terminals and waiting zones, I've had beautiful phone calls with the travelling family of sound, and had practice tips. Each time, the object I hold so dear that I make sound with was a portal to connecting with my loved ones, taking my mind off of any aches and sores.

Whatever the source of the sound, I’m not really bothered right now. It’s been a big big year, and so much has happened. I’m on my way for more writing and a bit more playing, with a look at 2024, a year I hope is more restful and sustainable. Reconnecting with my family has healed lots of pains of migration I hadn’t realised I was carrying with me, having a new family of friends and my community of practice, which feels more interested in working together than ladder-climbing right now, have made me remember a sense of purpose I was starting to lose and feel a lot more resilient.

There’s much more to report on, especially that of the incredible work that the students at Monash have done, how amazing it has been to be a teacher in their circle, and some super duper exciting research, but that will slowly fill in in my website as the summer rolls forward. A great thing about this injury slowing me down is that it’s reminding me of how I like to be on the internet, and making me be very conscious about how much of my time is sunk into where.

This is the last newsletter for this year from me, but I want to leave you with one gig notice. My Ocean, Again, album launch in Melbourne will be on Feb 10, 2024, at Tempo Rubato.

If you are looking to get a Christmas present for someone, I’d recommend getting them my LP. It’s beautiful, Ollie Hanane’s design is breathtaking, and the sound work (with Pat, Theo and Lawrence’s magical ears) is a pretty sweet time.

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Coming up:

• Prato workshop with Monash and Newcastle unis on Ethnographies of the Ineffable
  • I'm going to do a workshop on making a dinner table of sound. STOKED
• Workshop and performance w/ Conserere 3 Dec - Milan
• Ocean, Again album launch - Feb 10, 2024 - Melbourne, Tempo Rubato

I’m making a little list of my output for this year for those of you who might be interested. It’s a nice thing to do, listing what’s felt good, and trying to keep feeling present.

With love,

Iran

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Things I'm happy to have made:

The biggest of course is the LP release of the solo album above!

Conference papers (links to my writing here - will be populating this one!)

​TENOR (with Cat Hope)
​NIME (with Chloe Sobek) -

My chapter on developing a language on the floors in the Contemporary Musical Virtuosities book(this is really cuuuute because my oldest collaborator, David Moran, also has a chapter in this book, and I love that we’re in the same ToC! Library access might be needed to read this one)

It’s been hard to submit to publish. I didn’t realise how much insecurity I was harbouring about my writing style. It’s helpful to let it out. Ty Boque's newsletter is a lovely reading that always excites me about getting stuck into writing.

I did an interview with the ABC about my Floors life - you can watch the segment along with Nat Bartsch's here!

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Gigs I’ve loved playing (what I remember right now)

• Guthman Finals (played with the wonderful Nicolette Cash, alongside my new wonderful friends Lia Mice, Patricia Cadavid, with the support of a crew of beloved friends on the other side of the room - Dani, Noel, Amit, Ian, Neto, Karn, et al. )
• Augmented Instruments Lab solo set (sans floors - was so timid about it until the morning, waking up with my heart pounding at 3am; this is the first floorless floors set I’ve played and the first time I’ve made video with my work since undergrad)
• Indeterminacy 2.0 with Jacques Emery (one of the deepest musical minds I’ve met and a major inspiration for me. Do yourself the favour of listening to his EP Arco. I haven’t stopped since it came out and I listen to it sometimes as a lesson in listening and playing)
• Album launch gig (especially at Nexus Arts Centre, a place where I felt surrounded by the Adelaide fam)
• ​CCRMA, Stanford Ocean, Again launch (I realised so many things about my fears - also Constantin Basica made the most beautiful lighting amid the 10000 other things he did for it and I made new friends I can't imagine being without - you defs want to check out Mike Mulshine's gig at CCRMA the night before mine, because it was so beautiful & inspiring omg)
• TENOR 502 performance (with Jacob Hiser, Cat Hope, Jaslyn Robertson, Ciaran Frame) - this piece, co-composed with Dan Pitman, has data encapsulated from one of the quietest times in my life, and to be able to ‘touch that time’ or play with it, with musicians this wonderful, was a real joy (also Jaslyn’s piece Shadow Aria and Eugene Markin’s piece Survival Kit were just mind-blowing works that are both in my favourites from the past couple of years of anything I’ve seen)
• the NIME gig and the post NIME ISO gig with Chloe Sobek, in our large instruments duo work Flightless Path (there’s a vibe us large instrument players seem to have in common that makes for great bonds of music).
• guest sessions and talks at the Elder Conservatorium, Georgia Tech, Queen Mary. They feel like gigs: you go, do what you have prepared, connect with your people, feel extremely vulnerable, and come back a different person). The session at Elder Con, at the Sonic Arts in Practice class, where I used to be a menace of a student, was especially fun, and the source of many happy tears.

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Stuff I’ve made but you haven’t seen

• a recording with Niran Dasika, the beautiful maker of sound on trumpet, mandolins, pedals, voice, made at Blairgowrie, VIctoria.
• Contact Points, a duo work for Floors and Percussion, with Niki Johnson

No doubt you’ll hear these when the time is right in 2024~~~~

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My plans for next year:

• take it on manageably
• program & make a musical fabric with a machine loom
• write more
• live more

2024 is going to be a big year with hopefully presenting/continuing collaborative pieces made or currently at varying stages of making with Charlie Sdraulig, Mike Mulshine, Celeste Betancur, Frankie Dyson-Reilly, Pat Jaffe and Callum Mintzis and maybe starting a handbell group wait whaaaaaat....

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