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Mariam Rezaei

"How can I make the turntable sound as extreme as Roscoe Mitchell or Peter Brötzmann?" asked Mariam Rezaei in the Wire magazine in 2023, just before the release of ‘Bown’. Upon hearing the album, featuring such luminaries as Teresa Winter or Guttersnipe’s Bobby Glue, there is no doubt that the English artist is being quite successful in that herculean attempt. Next to Evicshen or Maria Chavez, Rezaei has been one of the key figures in the continuous vitality of the turntable as instrument, setting her own course from the seeds planted by Christian Marclay or Philip Jeck, through a conflagration of free jazz, noise, drone or modern composition - having worked with ensembles like Apartment House or the Brussels Orchestra. Both as an improviser and composer, Rezaei uses juxtaposition, electronic processing, her touch and a deep sense of focus to shape the matter and sound of vinyl into a new world of harmonic, rhythmic and lyrical possibilities. From the reality contained within grows another one, out in the open.

Photo: Stefano Bonusi