Iran (Persia)
Tehran · Isfahan · Shiraz
Persian classical music centres on the radif — a repertoire of melodic models — improvisation, and classical poetry. 1960s–70s Tehran also had a golden age of pop blending Western and Persian styles.
27 recordings, 1930–2020
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1930
Qamar ol-Moluk Vaziri, Qamar ol-Moluk Vaziri
Remembered as the first woman in Iran to sing in public unveiled — a pioneer of Persian classical singing.
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1962
Ali-Akbar Shahnazi, The Aqa Hoseyn-Qoli Radif, Vol. 1
The radif — the body of melodies at the heart of Persian classical music — in the version of Aqa Hoseyn-Qoli, played on tar by Ali-Akbar Shahnazi in 1962 and released by Tehran’s Mahoor Institute in 2003.
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1975
Googoosh, 40 Golden Hits of Googoosh
The star singer and actress of 1970s Tehran, whose songs blending Western pop with Persian melody made her an idol across the Persian-speaking world.
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1976
Kourosh Yaghmaei, Back from the Brink
A rock musician of pre-revolutionary Tehran who played Persian melodies on fuzz guitar; this 2011 compilation brought him worldwide attention.
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1979
Hayedeh, 40 Hayedeh Golden Songs, Vol. 1
A star of 1970s Tehran who sang pop with classical power; after the revolution she sang for the Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles.
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1984
Shahram Nazeri, Gol-e Sadbarg
Kurdish-Iranian singer Shahram Nazeri from Kermanshah marked Rumi’s 800th anniversary by singing only lesser-known Rumi poems — said to be the best-selling album of Persian classical and Sufi music.
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1985
Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Bidad
The master of Persian classical song with music by Parviz Meshkatian.
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1985
Mohammadreza Shajarian, Astan-e Janan
Persian classical singer Mohammadreza Shajarian recorded in concert at the Italian Embassy in Tehran in 1983, with Naser Farhangfar on tombak.
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1986
Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Nava
The defining voice of late-20th-century Persian classical music, singing Hafez, Saadi and other classical poets with exquisite radif-based artistry.
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1990
EBI, Khalij
Ebi’s album on Taraneh Records, named after its anthem “Khalij-e Hamishegi-ye Fars” (Persian Gulf Forever), with words by Adel Hassani and music by Mohammad Shams.
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1993
Farhad Mehrad, Khab Dar Bidari
Banned from singing after the 1979 revolution, Farhad Mehrad was finally allowed to release this, his first solo studio album, after some fifteen years of silence. Mixing Persian songs with English covers, it went to the top of the charts.
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2000
Arian Band, Gole Aftabgardoon
The debut of Arian Band, the first mixed male–female pop group officially approved in Iran after the 1979 revolution. Gole Aftabgardoon (The Sunflower) is reported to have sold more than 1.7 million official copies.
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2003
Ghazal (Kayhan Kalhor & Shujaat Husain Khan), The Rain
Live recordings by Ghazal — Iranian kamancheh with Indian sitar — where Persian and Hindustani classical music converse through improvisation.
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2003
Mahwash, Radio Kaboul (Hommage aux compositeurs Afghans)
Mahwash pays tribute to the composers of Radio Kabul’s golden age — the station that, from the 1940s, made music part of Afghan daily life — singing works by Ustad Sarahang and others. The same year she won a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award.
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2004
Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Akbar Moradi, In the Mirror of the Sky
Kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor meets Kurdish tanbur master Ali Akbar Moradi — two instruments rarely heard together — in an unbroken suite of improvisations built on Kurdish and Persian classical forms.
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2004
Googoosh, Akharin Khabar - Last News - Persian Music
Googoosh’s 2004 album: Mehrdad Asemani composed every song except “Pir Mashrekh,” with lyrics by Zoya Zakarian and Shahyar Ghanbari.
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2006
Hossein Alizadeh & Madjid Khaladj, Iran: Masters of Improvisation
Improvised duets by one of Iran’s foremost tar players and a master of the tombak drum.
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2006
Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan, The Wind
Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor and Turkish bağlama player Erdal Erzincan: two traditions across a border meet in improvisation.
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2007
Mohsen Namjoo, Toranj
The first album Mohsen Namjoo was officially allowed to release in Iran, setting poems by Hafez, Rumi, Attar and others. It was also the last of his records to receive a license there.
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2007
Kiosk, Eshghe Sorat (amor de la Velocidad)
The second album by Kiosk, the band Arash Sobhani founded in Tehran, made after the move to the US: rock and blues carrying sardonic songs about Iranian politics and society alongside love songs. Ahmad Kiarostami directed the title-track video.
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2014
Homayoun Shajarian & Tahmoures Pournazeri, Beyond Any Form
Singer Homayoun Shajarian and composer Tahmoures Pournazeri set Rumi and modern Persian poets, with guests including sitarist Shujaat Khan. It became one of the best-selling albums in Iran.
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2014
Siavash Amini, Till Human Voices Wake Us
Tehran musician Siavash Amini’s release for the label Umor Rex, first issued on cassette and digitally: ten cinematic ambient pieces based on poems by T. S. Eliot. It introduced him to listeners outside Iran.
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2016
Mohsen Namjoo, Personal Cipher
A singer and setar player from northeastern Iran who boldly mixes Persian classical singing and poetry with rock and blues.
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2016
Rastak, Among Eternal Suns
Rastak, the Iranian group formed in 1997 and led by Siamak Sepehri, take music from Kerman, Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Kurdestan, Fars, Baluchestan and Azerbaijan and play it with modern rhythms.
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2017
Sote, Sacred Horror in Design
Sote made this on a commission from Berlin’s CTM Festival, building it from his 2017 performance there: Arash Bolouri’s santur and Behrouz Pashaei’s setar set among electronics. Released on Opal Tapes.
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2019
Kronos Quartet, Marjan Vahdat & Mahsa Vahdat, Placeless
Kronos Quartet’s first collaboration with Iranian singers Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat, recorded in Oslo in November 2018: fourteen songs Mahsa set to poems by Hafez, Rumi, Forough Farrokhzad and others, arranged for string quartet.
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2020
Mahsa Vahdat, Enlighten the Night
Mahsa Vahdat with pianist Tord Gustavsen, bassist Gjermund Silset and drummer Kenneth Ekornes, singing poems by Simin Behbahani, Ahmad Shamlou, Forough Farrokhzad and Nima Yushij. Released by the Norwegian label KKV.