Axiom of Choice is a southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

(United States) based world music group of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Huguenots fled France followi ...

s who perform a modernized

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

style rooted in

Persian classical music Persian traditional music or Iranian traditional music, also known as Persian classical music or Iranian classical music, refers to the classical music of Iran (also known as ''Persia''). It consists of characteristics developed through the coun ...

with inspiration from other classical

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

ern and Eastern paradigms.

History

Led by

Loga Ramin Torkian Loga Ramin Torkian ( fa, لوگا) رامین ترکیان))،(Born: September 23 ،1964) is a musician and the co-founder of the groups Axiom of Choice and Niyaz. Both groups incorporate Persian and Middle Eastern themes into their music. Tork ...

, who plays a variant of a

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

of his own invention that is

fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...

ted to play

quarter tone A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, a ...

s, the band has a sound combining soaring female vocals,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

rhythms and melodies, and progressive Western production styles. The band was named after the mathematical concept, the

axiom of choice In mathematics, the axiom of choice, or AC, is an axiom of set theory equivalent to the statement that ''a Cartesian product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty''. Informally put, the axiom of choice says that given any collectio ...

. The melodies and rhythms of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

radif Radif ( fa, ردیف, meaning ''order'') is a rule in Persian, Turkic, and Urdu poetry which states that, in the form of poetry known as a ghazal, the second line of all the couplets (''s'' or ''shers'') ''must'' end with the ''same'' word/s. Th ...

tradition are mixed with various Middle Eastern and Eastern motifs as well as subtle electronic instrumentation. Led by Iranian-born nylon-string classical guitar, quarter-tone guitar, and tarbass player and musical director Loga Ramin Torkian, the septet incorporates a global range of influences into its sound. Axiom of Choice remains rooted in the musical heritage of Torkian and fellow Persian émigrés

Mamak Khadem Mamak Khadem (مامک خادم) is an Iranian-American world trance music singer. Called by Sandra Hughes "a nomad who uses her art to bridge cultural traditions”, Khadem is one of the few women singers in world trance music, a discipline norm ...

and

Pejman Hadadi Pejman Hadadi (born 1969, in Tehran) is an internationally acclaimed Iranian tonbak player and Persian classical musician. In 1990 Hadadi emigrated to the United States. In 1995, he joined Dastan Ensemble. Awards *Durfee Foundation Master Musicia ...

. While Khadem's singing in the

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...

retains the spirit of the past, the playing of Hadadi, one of the leading Persian percussionists living in the United States, gives the group its flavor. Hadadi—who plays

daf Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...

tombak The ''tombak'' (Persian: تمبک), ''tonbak'' (تنبک), or ''zarb'' (ضَرب) is an Iranian goblet drum. It is considered the principal percussion instrument of Persian music. The tombak is normally positioned diagonally across the torso w ...

, and

nagada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. Accordi ...

—previously toured with

Hossein Alizadeh Hossein Alizadeh ( fa, حسین علیزاده) is an Iranian musician, composer, radif-preserver, researcher, teacher, and tar, shurangiz and setar instrumentalist and improviser. He has performed with such musicians as Shahram Nazeri, Mohammad ...

Kayhan Kalhor Kayhan Kalhor ( fa, کیهان کلهر, ku, کەیھان کەڵھوڕ, translit=Keyhan Kelhur, born 24 November 1964) is an Iranian-Kurdish kamancheh and setar player and vocalist composer and master of classical Iranian traditional music. Ea ...

, and

Shahram Nazeri Shahram Nazeri ( ku, شارام نازری, translit=Şaram Nazirî, ; born 18 February 1950) is a contemporary Iranian tenor of Kurdish origin from Kermanshah, Iran, who sings Sufi music, classical and traditional Kurdish and Persian music. He ...

. He continues to be involved with Axiom of Choice and with the Dastan ensemble.

Discography

*''Beyond Denial'' (''Faray-e Enkaar'') (1996) *''Niya Yesh'' (2000) *''Unfolding (Goshayesh)'' (2002)

References

External links

Official webpage at Xdot25 Music
*

Axiom of Choice In mathematics, the axiom of choice, or AC, is an axiom of set theory equivalent to the statement that ''a Cartesian product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty''. Informally put, the axiom of choice says that given any collectio ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Axiom of Choice on culturebase.net
Persian classical music groups {{US-band-stub

History

Discography

See also

References

External links