Amir Baghiri; ambient music composer and electronica artist based in Germany, Europe; releases rooms

Releases - Solowork > Rooms

Title:	Rooms
Releasedate:	2001
Label:	Arya-Amplexus, Italy
Format:	3CD Box

CD 1: City

Tracklist:

01:	The Beginning of Circle	06:00
02:	Far Out	06:54
03:	The Trip of Thoughts	09:32
04:	Contemplating	08:51
05:	Unreachable Horizon	06:14
06:	A Deeper Depth	10:31
07:	Visions of a Shaman	08:12
08:	Darker Dreams	03:42
09:	Nightwalk	07:11
10:	Dreamfield	06:20
	Total:	-

The music is dedicated to Gabriele von Hardenberg & Werner Classen.

All music composed, performed and produced by Amir Baghiri. Recorded and mixed at the Bluebox (Lemgo, Germany between 1996-2001) Digital editing by Amir Baghiri and Jeremy Arenberg at Ambience 1. Mastered by Thomas Westheim at Ambience 1, Bielefeld-Germany ©Amir Baghiri 1996

Amir Baghiri: addetive, fm, FFT, granular, Physical-modelling, subtractives & spectrals, soundrooms, processors programming and ambiente creating, radio waves & vocoding, various percussions, rhytmprogramming & groove creating, gongs, tibetan chimes & tas (native iranian singing bowl), powerslide & didgeridoos, ney, ocarinas and panjab clay flute, bullroarer, spiritcatchers, stones & distant voices. Northern ambiente and nature athmos was recorded on a tascam tapedeck in north cap Norway in sep 1989, edited at Bluebox in 1999 by Amir Baghiri.
Guest artists: Mario Konrad, Jim Cole, Kåre Råbu, Malek Halime, Gabriele von Hardenberg.

CD 2: Real Rooms

Tracklist:

01:	Big Bang	07:24
02:	Timeslices	06:03
03:	Little Green Men (LGM)	08:48
04:	Turning the Tide	24:05
05:	Expanding Room	13:02
06:	Open Spaces	11:19
07:	Nowhere like Home	03:26
	Total:	-

The music is dedicated to Gabriele von Hardenberg & Werner Classen.

CD 3: Spaces in Between

Tracklist:

01:	Entering the Underworld	07:19
02:	Creeping Emptiness	10:06
03:	Interlude	05:02
04:	Patterns out of Chaos	01:58
05:	Airtribes	05:10
06:	Eyes of Stones	03:31
07:	Liquid Cave	06:54
08:	Touching the Deepend	17:30
09:	Where it all Ends	09:40
10:	Silent Room	01:01
	Total:	-

The music is dedicated to Gabriele von Hardenberg & Werner Classen.

Review 1:
"Rooms" is a three CD-set tribal minimalism from Amir Baghiri. The set has three distinct themes - one for each cd - that are interconnected. The CD's are subtitled Inner Rooms, Real Rooms and Spaces in Between respectively.
"Inner Rooms" refers to the chambers within the self. Amir has fashioned some expansive minimalism replete with experimental influences and ethnic subtleties. There is also a guest appearance by overtone singer Jim Cole. Jim's vocals enhance the subtle rhytm and deep drone of "The Trip of Thoughts" This disc is a journey in and of itself. It is also the beginning of a much larger journey and it sets that stage quite effectively.
"Real Rooms" is - DUH! - a reality check. From the singing bowls of "Big Bang" through the experimental textures of "Timeslices" and the gentle atmospheres of "Nowhere Like Home" this cd has an organic presence. The organic atmospheres add the unique touch. This leg of the journey serves to ground the listeners.
"Spaces in Between" maintains integrity with its double entendre. The first - and most obvious - meaning is a reference to the physical spaces between rooms. Amir's more subtle intent is to define the crossover between the emotional/spiritual existence and the physical/intellectual self. Amir is more concerned with the intangible spaces. This disc ties the first two discs together in the form of holistic integration of the self. The expansive atmospheres are perfect for meditating and discovering the symmetry of the heart, soul, mind and body. The organic textures and tribal influences create the vehicle for self-discovery. Amir has really come into his own of late. This is an exciting development inhis maturation as a composer and performer. Assuming that he continues to develop apace, the sky is the limit!

© Jim Brenholts

Preview2:
Again a cd-box from this sympathetic German/Iran-based ambientmusician, filled with 3 cd's, released in a strictly limited edition of 500 copies. The first pieces and ideas of this music were born in 1996, but have remained in Amir's mind all that time, until it was time to finish this special project. The subject Rooms is put in 3 dimensions, and even heads to a philosophical point of view while listening. Rooms is really music the listener should absorbe.
CD 1 "Inner Rooms" (73:58) is a heavy one: it opens with 6 minutes of didj before it flows into a strange landscape of dense ambienttextures within spectral voicing of Jim Cole and a broad variety of ethnic percussions and effects.
CD 2 "Real Rooms" (74:23) opens the gate with the dense atmospheres of Big Bang, then drifts in a strange ongoing passage with shifting soundlayers from both organic and electronic nature. This could be the soundtrack for a shamanic ceremony.
And then we reach CD 3 "Spaces in Between" (68:22), of which the composer himself says to be his favorite: a cave without a bottom. And yes, this is great music that succceeds to go underground. Vast layers of shifting and burning soundscapes take you on a trip into subconciousness where magic takes over. Music that lingers in the high-quality soundscape-tradition, but what else can you expect using tracktitles such as Airtribes, Eyes of Stone or Liquid Cave. This 3rd cd really hits the ceiling, an absolute beauty by all means.
"Rooms" offers a very sophisticated production to an outstanding collection of high-quality ambient that should be suitable for all those who want to take a further step into the Deep....

© Bert Strolenberg
Klem Magazine
August 2001

Review3:
Stepping into CD One, a.k.a. Inner Rooms (73:58) one is immediately surrounded by growling didge swirls of The Beginning of Circle and subsequently Far Out's ethnodrone-and drum. Jim Cole's spectral voice rings out against mutations of itself in scary-then-soothing The Trip of Thoughts. Eerie beauty gleams into the active void of A Deeper Depth where creepy slitherings accent the night, though with all its frighteningly disjointed vocal fragments, Darker Dreams must be the "padded" room. Eeek! Fortunately, the falling curtain of Dreamfield unfurls on billowing gusts which make everything right again.
CD Two enters Real Rooms (74:23), beginning with Big Bang's droning gongs, which are indeed big and bang into the hazey distance. Turning the Tide (24:05) does so on lengthy strands of keening radiance and warbling deep-space textures;a sometimes irritating high monotone is undersored with billowing emulsions. The glimmering glare of Open Spaces overlays soft murmered voices. Nowhere Like Home breathes easily (and vastly... though comparatively breifly) on warm, gusty updrafts.
Spaces In Between (68:22) a.k.a CD Three seems to dwell in rooms without walls... beginning with Entering the Underworld and Creeping Emptiness nearly every track simply expands from horizon to horizon in organically gaseous wonderment. Appropriately titled, the gentle sweeps of Where It All Ends closes the disc (though the liner notes refer to a tenth track, Silent Room, which is not on the CD, but rather in your listening space.)

Proving himself a master artchitect of sound, Amir Baghiri's Rooms encompasses a lot of ground... from earthy/indigenous to unearthly/ethereal. The only reason there's a minus attached to the A- is that the whole construction could have been condensed into a 2CD set of A+ material.

©David J Opdyke (www.ambientrance.org)