Niyaz ( fa, نياز) is an Iranian Canadian musical duo. The group was created in 2004 by DJ, programmer/producer and remixer

Carmen Rizzo Carmen Rizzo (born April 8, 1964) is an American record producer, mixer, programmer, DJ, remixer and recording artist, based in Los Angeles. The two-time Grammy nominee has worked with Seal, Coldplay, Paul Oakenfold, Alanis Morissette, Dido, Je ...

, vocalist and

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

player

Azam Ali Azam Ali ( fa, اعظم علی) is an Iranian musician. As of 2013, she has released eight full-length albums with the bands VAS and Niyaz, as well as four solo albums. Biography She was born in Tehran on 3 October 1970, Ali spent most of her ...

, formerly of the group Vas, and Ali's husband,

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 ...

, of the Iranian crossover group

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 ...

. In 2013, Carmen Rizzo announced via Facebook that he was retiring from Niyaz. "Niyaz" means "yearning" in

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 ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

and

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

. Niyaz's music, described as "mystical music with a modern edge", is primarily a blend of

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, ...

mysticism and trance electronica. Niyaz adapts Persian, Indian and Mediterranean folk sounds, poetry and songs including the poetry of Sufi mystic

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 ...

, with Western electronic instrumentation and programming. Their self-titled debut album, released in 2005, combined 13th century

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Their 2008 follow-up album,

Nine Heavens ''Nine Heavens'' (Persian: , Noh behešt) is the second album of Iranian music group Niyaz, an acoustic electronic project. It was released on June 24, 2008 on Six Degrees Records. The album is divided into 2 discs. One is the electronic version ...

, featured two discs; the second disc contained acoustic renditions of the tracks on the first disc. Their third album, ''

Sumud Sumud ( ar, صمود) meaning "steadfastness"Abed, 1988, p. 288. or "steadfast perseverance" is a Palestinian cultural value, ideological theme and political strategy that first emerged among the Palestinian people through the experience of the dia ...

'' (صمود), released in spring 2012. A companion piece to the album, an acoustic EP with six songs, was released 19 March 2013.

Lyrical sources

Though they have several songs with original lyrics, the bulk of their lyrics are derived from Persian and Urdu

poetry by the likes of

, Obeyd-e Zakani,

Amir Khusrow Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian s ...

and Khaju-ye Kermani, and folk songs from Iran,

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and other parts of the Middle East and central Asia. The lyrics of their first two albums are almost exclusively in

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

song on

, but their third album,

featured mostly Persian songs with two songs in Turkish and one each in

Palestinian Arabic Palestinian Arabic is a dialect continuum of mutually intelligible varieties of Levantine Arabic spoken by most Palestinians in Palestine, Israel and in the Palestinian diaspora. Together with Jordanian Arabic, it has the ISO 639-3 language code ...

and the

Kurmanji dialect Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...

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 ...

Discography

Albums

* ''

Niyaz Niyaz ( fa, نياز) is an Iranian Canadian musical duo. The group was created in 2004 by DJ, programmer/producer and remixer Carmen Rizzo, vocalist and hammered dulcimer player Azam Ali, formerly of the group Vas, and Ali's husband, Loga Ram ...

'' (2005) * ''

'' (2008) * ''

'' (2012) * ''

Sumud Acoustic EP ''Sumud Acoustic EP'' is an EP by Niyaz. Announced on September 20, 2012 as a companion piece to the 2012 album Sumud, the EP contains six songs, three of which are renditions of songs from Sumud. Early announcements for ''Sumud'' suggested that ...

'' (2013) * ''

The Fourth Light ''The Fourth Light'', released in March 2015, is the fourth full-length studio album by Niyaz, and their first since the departure of former bandmember Carmen Rizzo Carmen Rizzo (born April 8, 1964) is an American record producer, mixer, progra ...

'' (2015)

References

External links

* Iranian musical groups Performers of Sufi music American world music groups Musical groups established in 2005 Six Degrees Records artists {{Asia-band-stub