AMINI, SIAVASH - Eidolon

"To understand tuning systems, to peer into the infinity of microtonal compositional strategies, is to imagine a sense of musicality that extends far out beyond the familiar harmonies of the western ear. Iranian composer Siavash Amini, a self-confessed tuning obsessive, has dedicated much of his musical investigations over the past half decade to unlocking new relationships between harmonic events. Moreover, he has sought new timbral relations too and in doing so has honed a particular sonic-aesthetic that is increasingly haunting and spectral in nature. Amini's music is vertical, it reveals itself in ways which are unexpected and requires a certain auditory availability in its listener. Eidolon goes further than any other composition he has completed. It creates a contoured landscape in sound that is equal parts beautiful and overwhelming. A note from Siavash Amini: "Let me get this out of the way; I'm obsessed with Safi-al-din Urmavi's theory of tuning, rhythm, and maqam. It started