Ash Koosha developed his abstract electronic music after fleeing Iran for defying state censorship. Stream his new album I AKA I and get to know the artist inside

Text Selim Bulut

While Ash Koosha was studying classical music, formal composition, and sound acoustics at the Tehran Conservatory of Music, he was secretly playing in hard rock bands around the city. Cautious not to attract attention from the Ministry of Culture, the shows were pretty underground, with audiences of no more than 20 people. But after Koosha and his bandmates tried to organise a DIY festival outside of Tehran, the authorities forcibly broke it up. He spent three weeks in jail. Undeterred by the experience, Koosha formed a new group, Take It Easy Hospital. During this time he was approached by director Bahnman Ghobadi about making a film about Iran’s underground music scene and the problems it was facing from the state. The film, No One Knows About Persian Cats (starring Koosha under his birth name, Ashkan Kooshanejad), went on to win the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 2009. But its success brought on even more problems: emerging while Iran was cracking down on dissent once again, the film’s co-writer Roxana Saberi ended up being charged with espionage and jailed for eight years, and Take It Easy Hospital’s drummer was arrested and beaten. When the band came to the UK to play a handful of shows, they never returned. From 2010 onwards, Koosha lived in London, earning a living by soundtracking Iranian films over the internet. During this time he started producing solo music that took on more abstract and electronic forms, melding classical arrangements, ornate melodies, and glitchy production techniques. His music caught the attention of experimental label Olde English Spelling Bee, who released Koosha’s debut album GUUD last year. Now he’s back with I AKA I for Ninja Tune, an album informed by transhumanism, synaesthesia, and Koosha’s fascination with the visual properties of sound. Alongside the album’s release, Koosha has been working with virtual reality technologies in order to develop a new way of experiencing his sound sculptures. Below, listen to I AKA I exclusively on Dazed, and read on for an interview with Koosha about his experiences as a musician in Iran, his unexpectedly permanent trip to the UK, and his discovery of VR technology.

Ash Koosha — I AKA I artwork by Negar Shaghaghi

Tell us about your experiences as a musician in Iran. Ash Koosha: I grew up in Iran and I was there until I was 23. I grew up in a family where we listened to a lot of music. My parents were cool with me having tapes, reading magazines, and watching satellite TV. I started learning about different stuff by the tapes I received. It was mostly pretty random with music. The range was unbelievable, from folk music from Bolivia to the Backstreet Boys to Pink Floyd. It was just pure luck what you would get back in Iran, really. How did you go from your formal music education to playing in bands to making electronic music? Ash Koosha: I didn’t finish high school. I left in the second year. I was reading a lot of stuff on the internet and self-educating with different things, and school was slow and boring. I started playing different instruments. I was doing improv until I learned about the Tehran Conservatory of Music. I started learning classical composition and getting into music theory — more into form and structure and the movement of music. At the same time, I was recordings sound with my shitty computer. I was trying to get sounds from the environment, because [in] the first year we were studying acoustic physics and the technicals of sound. I got interested in how sound can be an object, and the physical properties of sound. I [also] formed a band and we started playing in tiny places and getting more experience. I was taking it more seriously than a lot of other people — I’d invested my life in producing music. What sort of music were you playing? Ash Koosha: It was funk bands to fusion to rock and punk and electronic rock. It would change depending on which people I was with. It was interesting because it made me learn a lot about being active in different genres. At one point I was improvising jazz with different people for three hours, then in the evening we’d go and play some crazy progressive rock jams. There were a couple of people we were interested in [with] electronic stuff, like Aphex Twin — we were making the glitch sound and trying to learn how it was done. “In Iran, there’s music called the ‘Authorized Music’. It has to go through the permit system from the Ministry of Culture, who decide what’s okay to be performed or released. And yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that’s being released in Iran, but it’s pretty controlled. I don’t call it music — it’s just an imitation.” — Ash Koosha I recently interviewed an MC from Iran who had to leave the country for his own safety. What was your experience with the state like? Ash Koosha: In Iran, there’s music called the ‘Authorized Music’. It has to go through the permit system from the Ministry of Culture, who decide what’s okay to be performed or released. And yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that’s being released in Iran, but it’s pretty controlled. I don’t call it music — it’s just an imitation. It’s not creative. I refused to be a part of that scene. The whole point of music is breaking boundaries, trying new things, and introducing new sounds to people. Did you ever experience any issues trying to get your music through? Ash Koosha: Yeah, generally because there were social lyrics involved. They had a problem with both [the] lyrics and the fast rhythm. It was provocative, as a package, because people would gather round and party and drink alcohol, and all that stuff is banned in Iran.

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