new year, new music :-)

[floatingleaf]

I had an ambitious plan today to do the 40-question year-end meme that's floating around... or at least an abbreviated version of it. However, in the so-called meantime I happened to discover my latest audio-visual crush... and so this is all I want to talk about right now. :-P I've been more than ready for some new inspiring music for quite a while now... so I'm not really surprised to be swept up in such a powerful fascination all of a sudden. In fact, I've been hoping for something like this to happen soon. I just didn't have the time to deliberately search for it. AND I had a feeling it was going to happen anyway. ;-)

So I took a peek at Dead Can Dance's latest videos on YouTube yesterday afternoon... and she came up as a suggested "similar artist". (Not really similar, but you know how YouTube throws stuff at you, based on what you've watched before? So I'm guessing that the general weirdness of videos was the common denominator here... LOL.) Sevdaliza. First glance at Google search results will tell you she's a "Dutch-Iranian singer-songwriter"... but what it actually means is that her family left Iran for the Netherlands, and she currently lives in Rotterdam. She was born in Tehran as Sevda Alizadeh, and she also has Russian and Azerbaijani roots. Her striking physique is a perfect match for her bold performance style... and it might also amuse you to know that she used to play on the national Dutch basketball team before she decided to devote her life to music (which explains her statuesque, athletic and slightly androgynous charm). She's only been publicly known as a musician for the past few years... but the explosion of raw creativity that she embodies was undeniable right from the start. She would not be contained. In fact, she created her own record label, so as not to be influenced by anyone else's artistic vision. Her videos are bold and surprising, even a little creepy... sometimes in contrast to the songs themselves, which can be piercingly gentle and vulnerable. I know this may sound corny... but I think she is expressing the wounded soul of this day and age. Someone called her a "futuristic traditionalist" (in addition to music videos, I've watched a bunch of interviews as well) - and I think it's a very fitting description. As for her music genre, I've seen it referred to as "electronic", "trip hop", "downtempo", "avant-pop", or even "alternative R&B". I don' really care what you call it. It's definitely unique and captivating. Haunting, even. I just put together a playlist that's almost two hours, and that I am probably going to play to death over the next few weeks. Anyway... instead of prattling on, let me just share a few examples. Here's the first video that caught my attention:

And this is quite possibly my favorite song of hers. Such a perfect little gem:

And being the lifelong world music enthusiast that I am, I also have to include this one - a gorgeous Persian ballad. In Farsi. I'm not sure why she chose the ridiculously oversized costume... but it really doesn't take away from the beauty of the song, or the language. Too bad I've forgotten most of my Farsi (which I studied, years ago), except for a few random words and phrases. But I can definitely still enjoy the melody of it, and her soulful voice...

Yes, I am pretty much helplessly in love at this point. Feel free to laugh. I know I like to claim I don't really have a "type" of woman I fancy, when it comes to physical appearance... but if I did, she would probably resemble Sevdaliza quite a bit. Just saying. ;-D

Comments

[dadi.livejournal.com]

As different as our opinions on many things might be, I continue to discover things we have in common :) I studied Farsi back in the early 90ies too - because I had fallen helplessly in love with a colleague who was a refugee from Iran. I never dared to confess my crush to her, but I managed to learn quite a bit of this wonderful language back then - and over the years forgot it again, mostly, but it has helped me with my Afghan refugees who had lived for years in Iran and spoke Dari, which is basically a dialect of Farsi.
I have met other Iranians over the year, both male and female, and the classical beauty many of them possess always leaves me breathless.

[floatingleaf.livejournal.com]

Well... my reasons for studying Persian culture weren't nearly as romantic. I simply picked one of the very few language studies available at my university that didn't include mandatory teaching practice (because there was exactly zero demand for teachers of Farsi... LOL). I had studied English before, and I dropped out midway through my third year due to a massive nervous breakdown (one of the reasons for which was precisely my obsessive fear of teaching). After a year of medical leave, I came back to university, but I was allowed to chose a field of study that wouldn't put so much pressure on me. It was "a waste of five years", according to my mother, since I didn't obtain a profession. But I also knew that, soon after getting my diploma, I was going to emigrate to the US, anyway - so it didn't seem to matter...

Yes, I remember learning about the really subtle differences between Farsi and Dari. I also remember watching an Afghan film, and understanding some of the original dialog...

And you're right: it's an archetypal, classic beauty that a lot of Iranians share. It's not just a cross between India and Middle East. They have a certain "nobility" to their features that makes you think of ancient sculptures. In a way, they are like the Greeks and Romans of Central Asia, with their centuries of rich cultural heritage...

[meathiel]

Hmmm ... I don't think she is really similar to DCD?
And tbh the music is too triphop or R'n'B for my taste ...

[floatingleaf.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I think the only similarity between her and DCD might be that they both like making really strange, outlandish videos. ;-) So perhaps that's why YouTube thought I might be interested in checking her out... (And they were right!... LOL.)