Podcast 516: Kamran Sadeghi
An hour of intricate unreleased techno from an acclaimed multi-media artist.
Podcast 516: Kamran Sadeghi
An hour of intricate unreleased techno from an acclaimed multi-media artist.
Kamran Sadeghi is one of those wildly talented music producers that many of you have never heard of. The New York City-based artist—who divides his time between there and Berlin—is an elusive character, though one who is well respected and much appreciated by those familiar with his work. “Talking is at the very bottom of my list,” he said in one of his few interviews. “It’s one thing to talk about an idea or what you want and it’s a whole other world to make that happen together.”
As Sadeghi explains, he sits at the intersection of music and art. He involved himself in music around the age of 17, late by some standards, having spent his earlier years exploring visual art—mainly painting and drawing. An interest in jazz music blossomed through his teens, inspiring him to pursue a career as a jazz drummer, and no sooner was he releasing music as Son Of Rose—an alias for his early ambient works. Between 2006 and 2008, he released three full-length LPs.
And then he stopped.
Sadeghi’s initial flurry of output was brought to an end, followed by a seven-year hiatus during which he opted to focus on audio-video art. During this time, he released nothing musically, but his videos were selected to be showcased by WPAC’s Experimental Media Series curated by Richard Chartier and the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, among many others.
Only in 2014 did he begin releasing music once again, this time showcasing a more punchy sound—with sharp punctuations and brutal hooks and harmonies. His more recent releases have landed on Nervmusic Records, DeWalta‘s Meander, Cocoon, and, more recently Brouqade. It’s a growing collection of extremely high-quality productions—evidence if you needed any of just why he possesses the reputation that he does.
As a performing musician with Soundwalk Collective, he has played live with Patti Smith and Jesse Paris Smith for the project Killer Road. He has also performed live with synthesizers and field recordings on a project called Memoirs Of Disintegration with Nan Goldin and Samuel Rohrer. Sadeghi’s solo live performances have been played at festivals and venues like Robert Johnson, Rex Club, Resolute, Nordstern, ADE, CTM, and Resonate Festival. He has also performed at Arma17, Nuits Sonores, Volksbuhne, Centre Pompidou, and Panorama Bar/Berghain as a part of Soundwalk Collective.
Naturally, he doesn’t do podcasts, but here he’s made an exception, compiling a 60-minute recording of some of his favorite unreleased productions. It’s dark, intricate, and trippy, with an exceptional range of sound—a club-ready mix with a hypnotic groove, but one that works the mind and the body.
When and where did you record the mix?
I recorded the mix in my home studio pretty late at night around the early part of October.
How did you choose the tracks to include? Are they all your unreleased productions?
They’re all unreleased at the moment, which was one of the first ideas for choosing the tracks. From there, I started to select the ones that were kind of neglected. They’re like plants you know: the more you watch their behavior, the better you can care for them.
Was there a particular idea or mood you were looking to convey?
Not really, I just followed the mood that existed in each piece with another track that either carried the story over or created a nice counterpoint. Because I play live, I rarely get a chance to DJ, especially my own tracks.
What equipment did you record the mix on?
The tracks are all unreleased so I mixed it with my studio setup.
You’ve had a busy year for productions. What’s next on the horizon?
I have a pretty steady schedule of solo and collaborative releases on the horizon. I’m working on some new alias productions. One of which is an ambient album that I’m shopping around at the moment.
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