Bahram Pourmand (), better known by his stage name Bahramji (born 1952 in Kermanshah) is a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

New Age music New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather than tr ...

ian from

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 ...

Life

As a child he heard the old

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

melodies, which now form the source of inspiration for his music. At the age of 13, he learned to play the Persian string instrument the

santur The santur (also ''santūr'', ''santour'', ''santoor'') ( fa, سنتور), is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origins.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻU ...

and soon began to perform several shows in his home town. In 1977 he left Iran, traveled to India for study, and later emigrated to Europe. After his life and creative work in India, where he stayed for a long time, he discovered the island of

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

in Spain in 2003. There he met many other musicians, DJs and producers who inspired him to expand his style.

Music style

By making music for hikers from different cultures, he has changed his style, which has been influenced by the traditional

Persian music Persian music may refer to various types of the music of Persia/Iran or other Persian-speaking countries: * Persian traditional music * Persian ritual music *Persian pop music * Persian symphonic music * Persian piano music See also *Music of Ira ...

, and has thus found his own style. Particular to his music is that he pours old songs into a new form and through this fusion creates a meditative, musical era. Bahram's instrument is the Persian santoor, a traditional stringed instrument of which it is said it could create the sound of emptiness. Besides the santoor, he began playing the Persian

setar A setar ( fa, سه‌تار, ) is a stringed instrument, a type of lute used in Persian traditional music, played solo or accompanying voice. It is a member of the tanbur family of long-necked lutes with a range of more than two and a half octa ...

and

ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continually ...

, a Persian bamboo flute. Soon afterwards, he began to sing to his music, which had hitherto been instrumental in character: he often quotes the poems and wisdom of mystical poets such as

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلال‌الدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my ma ...

. His music is a special combination between the old and the traditional, a fusion of Rumi's spiritual poems with modern and technical rhythms that invite to meditation. The fusion between spirituality and meditative rhythms, combined with traditional Persian instruments such as the santoor, have a hypnotic effect.

Discography

* 1997: ''Sama'' * 2004: ''Call of the Mystic'' (mit Maneesh de Moor), Blue Flame Records * 2007: ''Master & Disciple'' (feat. Bashir), Blue Flame Records * 2007: ''Sufi Safir'' (feat. Mashti), Blue Flame Records * 2009: ''Sufiyan'' (mit Mashti), Blue Flame Records * 2011: ''Divaneh'' (mit Mashti), Blue Flame Records * 2012: ''Celestial Doorways '' (mit Swann), Blue Flame Records * 2013: ''Inner Ji'' * 2017: ''Four Dimensions'' * 2018: ''Ambrosiah'', Blue Flame Records * 2019: ''Open Spirit'', Blue Flame Records

References

External links

* * * * *{{cite web, url=http://www.last.fm/music/Bahramji+&+Mashti/+wiki , title=Bahramji & Mashti's Biography — Free listening, videos, concerts, stats and photos at , website=Last.fm , date= , accessdate=2017-06-13 20th-century Iranian musicians Kurdish musicians People from Kermanshah 1952 births Living people