Girl unveils a unique soundworld derived from Lolavar’s British Iranian heritage and experience. The four pieces interweave her training across both western and Iranian classical musics without restriction or narrowing down by either tradition. In this way, Lolavar’s work is a truly diasporic creation—producing new creative forms from a life experience across multiple cultures. This approach strengthens her collaboration with Lovelady, with themes of dual belonging also central to Ruthless Jabiru: Lovelady’s ensemble of Australasian musicians in the UK, and its combined dedication to New Music and humanitarian stories.

Along with the album’s announcement comes the release of single Undone. The piece is an orchestral reinterpretation of Lolavar’s monody for detuned violin, a 2020 commission by Riot Ensemble written in response to the pandemic. This new version features Sarah Saviet as soloist and is a compelling introduction to Lolavar’s musical philosophy. “[Undone] was one of the first I wrote entirely on the santoor,” she writes. “I’m fascinated by the ghostly presence of this ancient Iranian instrument in a piece for western strings.” 

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The new album from composer Soosan Lolavar, conductor Kelly Lovelady and chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru, Girl, puts diasporic experience at the centre of a uniquely personal soundworld. Lolavar describes her music as “striving to create new forms which are tied to western and Iranian traditions, but not defined by these practices nor reduced to these elements alone.”

The album opens with I am the Spring, You are the Earth, for santoor and string orchestra; a piece described by BBC Music Magazine as “a glorious, shifting collage of sound.” Given its semi-improvised nature, it is a work always in a state of becoming; iteratively produced in each new playing and listening. As such, it is the piece on the album which most closely represents Lolavar’s own emerging sense of diasporic identity.

The album follows with an orchestral expansion of Lolavar’s work for detuned violin, Undone, a 2020 commission by Riot Ensemble responding to lockdown and the unraveling of life as we knew it. The version for Ruthless Jabiru maintains the intensity and unconventional tuning of the solo violin, giving a self-contained sense of instability.

Sextet Girl is based on an Iranian folk melody from which all material in the piece is derived. The melody is constantly altered, fractured and recontextualized, echoing the way that oral traditions subtly bend and reform over time and space. In this way, the piece explores folk melodies as collective memorialization and what it means to both remember and forget where you are from.

Tradition – Hybrid – Survival, for cello and string ensemble, is inspired by shifting identities and the continual reinvention/remaking of the diasporic self. Written during a period when Lolavar was traveling a great deal between the UK and Iran, it features a 4-note melody recorded from Iranian television as the basis of the solo cello. Over time the solo line expands and evolves, becoming increasingly complex and eventually bearing no relationship to the place where it started.

Considering the way these pieces reflect deep experiences in her life and work, Lolavar reiterates her hope that this debut portrait album inhabits a space far beyond ideas of fusion or hybrid art. “For me,” she says, “these pieces are not about combining or mixing distinct musical traditions in a detached way. Rather, they are a representation of a lifetime lived amongst these sounds, and an exploration of the new cultural forms created by such experiences.”

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Girl

Release Date: 15 March 2024
Label: nonclassical
Link to stream and preorder

Tracklist

1. I am the Spring, You are the Earth
2. Undone
3. Girl
4. Tradition – Hybrid – Survival

Artists

Soosan Lolavar composer
Kelly Lovelady conductor
Faraz Eshghi Sahraei santoor
Sarah Saviet detuned violin
Roxanna Albayati cello

Ruthless Jabiru

Violin: Kourosh Ahmadi (Guest Leader), Anna O’Brien, Eleanor Hill, Sarah Buchan, Doris Kuo, Andrew Kelly, Amy You, Alice Dring
Viola: Lisa Bucknell, Julia Doukakis, Jill Valentine
Cello: Andrew Chamberlain, Waynne Kwon, Lavinnia Rae
Bass: Hugh Kluger, Adam Storey
Alto flute: Nicola Crowe
Clarinet: Taxi Rank
Piano: Kerry Yong
Percussion: Graeme Leak
Production & Orchestra Manager: Shannon St. Luce

Credits

Artwork: Taqi Mohammadi
Sleeve design: Dayanna Pulido
Mastering: Adaq Khan
Administrative Assistant: Ilona McKie
Session photography: Karis Beaumont, Sinai Noor, Tasalla Tabasom

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Dr Soosan Lolavar is a British Iranian composer whose music draws on ideas from both western and Iranian traditions. She has been performed across the world, broadcast on BBC television in both the UK and Iran; and on BBC Radio 3, 4 and the World Service. In 2022 Soosan was awarded the RPS Composer prize and partnered with Cheltenham Music Festival; and more recently, shortlisted by the ISCM International Jury for the 2023 World Music Days (South Africa). Soosan’s work explores unique tuning systems using the infinite capabilities of her primary instrument, santoor. She strives to make music that resonates in the world long after we have stopped listening.

Kelly Lovelady is a conductor, curator and cultural Activist with a passion for experimental programming, concert dramaturgy and composer advocacy. She is the founding Artistic Director of London chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru and has devised, self-produced and conducted massed musical and cross-artform projects for festivals across the UK, Canada and Australia. Lovelady is in demand in the UK and abroad as both a Musical Director and Assistant Conductor with a focus on contemporary repertoire and composer collaboration.

Ruthless Jabiru is a dynamic chamber orchestra of Australasian musicians in the UK merging contemporary music and Activism in an effort to promote compassion, sustainability and social consciousness. Under the leadership of its founding Artistic Director Kelly Lovelady, Ruthless Jabiru delivers curated performance events dedicated to exploring, highlighting, and championing humanitarian and social justice stories in collaboration with the UK campaigning sector.

Born in Rasht, Northern Iran and active internationally as a composer, Kamānche player and multi-instrumentalist, Faraz Eshghi Sahraei’s music reflects his combined passions for western classical, Middle Eastern and contemporary cross-genre collaboration. Inspired by his uncle, an acclaimed Santoor player in the 1960s, Eshghi Sahraei’s love of Santoor began in his youth and the instrument has remained close to his heart alongside a primary bowed practice.

Sarah Saviet is a violinist based in Berlin and dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician and is a member of the Saviet/Houston Duo and Ensemble Mosaik. Saviet has released solo albums on Coviello Contemporary, all that dust, and another timbre. Her recording of Liza Lim’s violin concerto ‘Speak, Be Silent,’ with the Riot Ensemble on HCR/NMC records was selected as one of New Yorker Magazine’s ‘Best recordings of 2019.’

Roxanna Albayati is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and music educator. Her practice centres around combining experimental music with performance art and audio-visuals, exploring topics surrounding identity, sense of belonging and the body. Her music merges cross-cultural improvisation with Iranian classical music and the physicality of performance.  She is one of the co-curators of ZANĀN Collective, a female led experimental music collective which focuses on expression of artistic identity among diaspora cultures.

Nonclassical is a music promoter, record label and events producer presenting the best new classical, experimental and electronic music. Crossing genre and defying convention, we develop, produce and promote innovative music – supporting emerging artists and bringing new music to new audiences.

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