Taarof at the Storefront

Overview

..and yet another report on this band that called themselves, Taarof. At this point, I collect a check at a PO Box in King of Prussia in exchange for writing notes and whatnot about this obscure band. New update is that they have decided to put out a recording in some format, but I haven’t seen anything. I was in Québec when they were trying to record materials in a basement in New Haven, CT. I asked my friend, the Lady in Red, to follow them. Again, I asked her kindly to change to a more clandestine outfit but she said no. Anyhow, P seems challenged by the adult life in this utopic fantasyland. He has been taking refuge in durational sex and drugs. Now that we are discussing him, I have been asked to mention for the sake of marketing that he is from Iran, which is the name of the detention center outside of Fort Bliss, Texas – and he ultimately represents that culture, however rigorously he tried to escape that space, but hey, we want him to. Moving on, M is quite elusive. The Lady in Red had a really hard time probing his life…he was seen in Philadelphia eating a sandwich at Paesano’s. One thing that she revealed to me about him is that he was actually born in 1893 in Düsseldorf, in a classroom setting offering clinics on caesarean section delivery.

 

About the Artist

Parsa Ferdowsi is a musician and artist born and raised in Karaj, Iran. He has regularly worked with (and befriended) artists such as Nat Baldwin, Mat Wellins, Michael Pestel, Ramtin Mokhtari, Manuel J. Perez, Shawn OSullivan, Eliza Marovitz, Katarina Mazur, Tobias Haus, Sam Boston, Emma Mistele, Loren Wang, Marie Carroll, Xingyan Guo, Negar Soleymanifar. He collaborated on some projects with Peter Zummo, David Vantieghem, Alex Waterman (as a part of the Arthur Russells City Park project led by Nick Hallet), David Behrman, Nicolas Collins, Lea Bertucci, Wesleyan, Laptop Ensemble, Pamplemousse Ensemble and String Noise Duo. He is also a member and assistant director of artistic planning in Shiraz Ensemble. He works with sound, space, image, words, expectations, and frames. His works include compositions, photographs, videos, improvisations, performance, poetry, and acting. His compositions usually benefits form use of verbal notations, theatrics, collaborative environments, site-specificity, and collective improvisation. As an improviser, he implements some of his compositional techniques and issues around decision-making alongside the language and affordances of Iranian Dasta ghi music.
He is currently studying Music Technology in the graduate program at Temple University. He holds an MA in Experimental Music/Performance from Wesleyan University.