A ceremonial fusion of Persian mystical music and poetry and electronic soundscapes
Zemzemeh reinterprets ancient Persian mystical poetry and music for new audiences.
Every element is crafted to lead them beyond the intellect into heart-knowledge: a direct taste of deeper reality where separation softens, listening becomes union, and a near-trance emerges, a post-digital dhikr for the modern soul.
Siyavash plays tanbour, a three-stringed lute primarily used in Sufi ceremonies, which evokes bubbling streams, birds in flight, and galloping hooves. Greta’s shah kaman, a Persian spike-fiddle, has a haunting resonance.
Projections of sacred geometry and translations, along with pre-show poetry workshops, provide pathways to spiritual insights of the Persian Sufi poet masters such Rumi, Hafez, and Attar, who offer profound lessons on divine love, unity, and the soul’s journey.
Royalties % (if applicable): Community Presenters.
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In 2027 Zemzemeh will be touring Rhyme & Reason their new album nationally. To cover accommodation, per diems and travel costs they will seek federal and state government funding. They can also work with regional poetry groups and other local organisations to seek local council funding to support their free Persian mystical poetry workshop program.
Their album which they will be touring draws a living thread between traditional Persian music and the sonic landscape of the present. The tanbour, bright, percussive, deeply sacred, the shah kaman, whose bowed, voice-like sustain carries the emotional weight of centuries. The album ranges from devotional drone and modal improvisation through to hip-hop tracks, never losing its footing in Persian musical tradition, never content to stay within it. Woven through the pieces, verses of Sufi mystical poetry surface in both Persian and English.
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Applications that do not meet these criteria cannot be funded.
Regional Arts Victoria acknowledges and pays respect to the Traditional Owners and Elders – past and present – of the lands on which Regional Arts Victoria operates. We acknowledge that sovereignty was not ceded. We acknowledge Aboriginal connection to cultural and creative practice for more than 65,000 years on the lands that we work on and extend our respect to First Nations people throughout the communities where we live and work.
