+ 1, Guest Contributor, Henry Kaiser
HERMES RECORDS of Iran, an Appreciation
For years I
haunted the world music sections of Bay Area record emporiums, hunting for the
inspiring, the surprising, the alien, and the obscure. I searched things out
both to inspire myself musically, and to share with my friends and KPFA
listeners. The music of Iran was always one of my favorite areas to explore. It
is certainly one of the most powerful and expressive tributaries of the great
rivers of the musics of Islam.
During the past decade, with the great disappearance of many of the Bay Area’s
record shops, and the shrinking of world music sections in the stores, I turned
to the internet to find much of my world music CDs.
There seemed to be several suppliers of Persian musics in the Los Angeles area
and I ordered many CDs from them online. One of the best sources for Persian
music seemed to be Music Box:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/music-box-los-angeles. Sadly their website,
http://www.musicboxla.com, seems to be unavailable or gone, when I checked in on
it this morning. A little over two years ago, I had noticed that among most of
the favorite of the dozens of the CDs that I had purchased from Music Box were
those from the Hermes Label in Iran.
I went directly to the label’s website and was astonished by what I found there.
Take a look at:
http://www.hermesrecords.com/en/ . Take a look now. You will find a catalog
of over 73 releases that encompasses New Music, Jazz, Persian Classical, Tribal
Music, World Music Collaborations, Armenian Music and more.
The labels mission and history statements include this information:
There is no reason for Music. It simply exists.
Hermes Records was founded in Winter 1999 aiming to produce and promote
modern persian music, discover creative musicians and help artists approach new
horizons. While the music industry in Iran is devoting most of its attention to
popular and traditional genres, artists from diverse backgrounds have been
brought together to explore common understandings and new musical colorings
under the slogan Music for Music. The trust of talented persian musicians as
well as artists from abroad has helped us walk through this path and continue
searching for new ideas.
Our Vision: Creating a joyful and inspirational environment to
generate musical ideas.
Our Mission:
- To attain and sustain international reputation for persian music and
artists.
- To utilize advantages of persian music
- To establish a share for persian musical productions in the global market.
- To defend the legal rights of persian artists
- To make people enjoy music!
1999 - November - The idea clicks!
2000 - January 11 - Hermes Records officially established
2001 - June - first release (Earth Whisper - Mohammadreza Aligholi)
2002 - October - first official presence abroad (WOMEX - Essen, Germany)
2003 - January - first live event (Ensemble EA concert in Tehran)
2004 - October - first concert abroad (Nour Ensemble, Paris)
2007 - Grammy nomination for best World Music album in 2006 (Endless Vision -
Hossein Alizadeh, Jivan Gasparyan)
2009 - November - 50th release (Thousand Acacias, Hooshyar Khayam)
2010 - January 11 - Hermes Records' 10th Anniversary
I have more than a couple of dozen albums on the label. The engineering and
recorded sound is typically on a level with the best ECM productions. The
musicians sound inspired and “in-the-zone” performance-wise. The music is
unusual to Western ears and traditional and experimental at the same time.
I am amazed that this label has received almost no notice and press in the USA.
True, it’s a time of musical xenophobia for the US music industry, and relations
with Iran are not the most friendly between the two countries. But that’s also a
time for musicians and listeners to try to bridge the gaps, a time to share, and
a time to celebrate the pure joy of music.
I asked Ramin Sadighi, the owner and founder of
Hermes Records a few questions about the label:
What is your model for the label and your curation
and production of the musics?
This is always the toughest question for me! Frankly said, I never thought about
which lines to follow or which kind of music to invest in or exploit. From the
very beginning I only clarified the “What I won’t do”s. Despite my own personal
taste, which varies from Early Music to ordinary Pop Music (but of course with
great fondness to Progressive Rock, Jazz and Classical Music), my model for
Hermes was to exclude Pop, Pure Traditional or Folk, and routine Classical
Music. Whatever would meet this criteria, but could catch my attention could
definitely have a place in my label. To conclude, I have to say that, in
general, I have no tendency to categorize music, and believe that our slogan
speaks to it (Music for Music). So, if a musical project (which in many times
gets initiated by myself), or any musical idea could have a hook on me, then I
simply jump into it.
The albums on Hermes all have such excellent
sound/engineering. Was this an easy thing to achieve?
Wow, you made a great compliment which I appreciate very much! Being a musician
myself I always had the obvious concerns of a musician regarding sound quality.
Now and since I stopped making or playing music myself and dedicated my life in
production, I still carry these concerns on behalf of my musicians. I am not
that typical wealthy producer who just signs checks, or produces only according
to the market demand. Actually, a good working bank account is the only thing
which I don’t have at all! As a producer, I feel as responsible as the musicians
for creating proper sounds. And, of course, I feel blessed that the whole Hermes
Network is actually formed around a circle of friends in which we have made
music since 30 years ago. So, we understand each other blind, and throughout the
past 14 years, after establishing Hermes, we all enjoyed this environment to
bring out the sound we all desire. In the beginning Hermes was a hobby—a hobby
with no serious vision towards profit. More an environment for doing things we
wished to do, if you like. Therefore, quality was one of those wishes which the
lack of it really hurt us throughout the years. This we never sacrificed for any
benefit and became our identity, even after my hobby became my job (and turned
in the jobby), I still stayed loyal to it.
Where is most of the Hermes product sold?
Surely Iran is the main market. Despite our online sales via the digital
downloading portals, our physical sales abroad are mostly in France, England,
Greece and Turkey. In the USA we still can’t have an official presence (due to
the sanctions and custom hurdles) and, in spite big interest there, we have to
stick only on the digital sales and small quantity orders via our website.
Tell us about the music scenes that you are involved
with and which most enjoy in Iran?
Parallel to production and releasing albums, we also sell licensing abroad for
compilations, or for secondary usage (films, documentary, etc.), as well as
organizing concerts. Hermes doesn’t really act as an event organizer, and only
concentrates to organize concerts for its own musicians (both in Iran and
abroad), which reaches a limited number (up to 10 concerts per year). But, I
myself, in collaboration with the Fadjr International Music festival in Tehran,
have my own Jazz/Experimental week every February in which I host musicians from
other countries in Tehran for concerts. Till now, musicians such as Renaud
Garcia-Fons, Tarkovsky Quartet, Stephan Micus, Anouar Brahem, Anja Lechner,
Ronin, Colin Vallon Trio, Wolfert Brederode Quartet, Ralph van Raat were among
the musicians I have invited to play live. And as you may recognize, a good
number of them are ECM artists. Fortunately, I have a good relation with ECM,
Manfred Eicher and his artists, so am able to invite them to Iran.
What’s in the musical future?
I strongly believe that music will re-marry with its original essence, which is
being performed live and turning again into a social event. Production,
releasing albums in the 70s to 90s fashion will be over soon (if not yet!). A
good portion of artists will only survive if they still could be able to perform
live. I think the whole digital and downloading and piracy crisis accelerated in
the past decade had severe consequences but in overall it helped music to find
its roots. Music is a phenomenon which should be experienced in a community, and
not just at home and with loudspeakers. Music is a phenomenon in which artists
and audience should be able to get connected closely (in small venues and clubs)
instead of giant venues only, where there is big distance between them.
Musicians will more and more getting involved in the details of their profession
(sound, marketing, promotion, PR, etc.). Consumers feel more satisfied by buying
the albums directly from the artists instead of record shops or other middlemen.
Building the more humane sympathy between musicians and audience is the key of
success. Crowd-Financing can take over traditional productions. In the end, I
guess, music will become again a troubadour culture. As a producer, I shall be
scared or worried about this prediction, but honestly am not. Even if many go
down because of this, I won’t regret it at all. Because, whatever we intended to
do was keeping music alive, and sometimes you should be the victim for a better
sake.
At any rate, I am certain the ROVA fans would enjoy much of the music recorded
on the Hermes Label, and I encourage you to visit the website and order a few
CDs that might seem to be to their own personal tastes. Go for it! You won’t be
sorry. How often do you get mail from Iran, anyway? If you want to go after some
of my favorite recordings on the label, listen to these samples, listed in no
particular order:
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/MoonFog
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/Barad
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/Oneday
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/monad
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/Clouds
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/Shadows
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/Zhoor
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/NewMusic
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/GypsyMoon
http://www.hermesrecords.com/En/Catalogue/PianoSolo
- Henry Kaiser, March 2014
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