Obscurity

The final day of the Tehran Contemporary Music Festival began with the performance of MohammadReza Govahi in the electronic/experimental section. Ninety degree rotation of the seating layout in the Hafez Hall of scene design workshop (Rudaki atelier) attracted attention at the start of the show compared with the performances of the previous days. It started with bass tones, which had a dark and dreadful sound­. At the beginning, the relatively good quality of the bass sounds indicates that the new arrangement of seating has had a positive impact on the quality of the sound. After a few seconds from the beginning, Govahi pours some water into the "Waterphone"[1] and adds a modified sound of water loss to the bass line notes. Stretching those dark bass sounds evokes the mood of dark ambient. The genre he was interested in before, in his previous works. The addition of distorted rough sounds similar to electric guitars, as well as the addition of siren noises, makes it clear why the first part of this music performance composed as a memorial of firefighters of the fire at the Plasco building in Tehran.

Part II, in relative proportions with the previous part, but was almost entirely rhythmic. The body and face of Mohammadreza Govahi, who before only was reacting to the diminution and augmentation of dynamics in the first part, was now dancing with the advent of rhythm. Each of the rhythmic patterns was composed in that moment and looped by the pads. Adding these patterns and other sound lines gradually thicken the texture and tension in the music, and this tension at a point suddenly calmed down quietly between bass sounds. However, the arrangements of the second part, raised gently the energy of performance, but eventually the repetition of the pattern of increasing tension and its sudden collapse into a relative calm and silence, made the performance predictable and monotonous, and drove it into an abyss of repetition. Even so, the enchantment of these dynamic rhythms, the success of recalling dreadful and tenebrous atmosphere, as well as the physical vitality of Mohammadreza Govahi, managed to turn this performance into another prosperous performance in the festival.