jazz

Manushan

Aïda Nosrat & Babak Amir Mobasher

INTERVIEW

 

What are the advantages of a residency at the Cité internationale des arts?

 

"The benefits of being in residence at the Cité internationale des arts are beyond my imagination. The Cité opened me to a whole new artistic world and I discovered new talents here by collaborating with artists from all over the world. For example, I discovered a talent for dance and performance by working with Anahita Hekmat, Alexandra Deutsch or Amin Gulgee.

 

As a composer, singer and violinist, the residency allowed me to meet many talented musicians and discover interesting musical styles. I had the chance to work with some of them, like Ghasen Fendri from Tunisia, or Victor Beneve and Bilyana Furnadzhieva from Bulgaria (around their beautiful crystal sound project where I collaborate with Lea Dudzik). Thanks to these meetings, my own creations were able to be built and strengthened. 

 

The Cité internationale des arts is a very high quality cultural venue that has opened many doors to us, and allowed my husband – who is also a musician and who has lived and worked with me for 16 years – and I to make many contacts.
No need to mention the fantastic management and kindness of the people who run this place. They create a unique and professional atmosphere for all the artists in residence there. I am deeply happy and grateful to have the opportunity, in my career and professional life, to live in this artistic paradise."

 

You were able to present your projects during concerts at the Cité internationale des arts, feedback on this subject?

 

"The feedback we received for our project was really good and positive, and not only for new projects.

It was really comforting and motivating for us, musicians who have lived and worked most of our lives in a difficult situation and atmosphere linked to a country like Iran, to be able to see the reaction of the public and other artists. It has given us even more confidence in what we are doing and we will work even more to continue to move forward on this musical path."

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

Aïda Nosrat sings and plays the violin, nourished by her Azeri roots. Babak Amir Mobasher is a guitarist. Together, they form the Manushan duo and explore the Spanish gypsy universe but also its cousins in gypsy jazz or gypsy and central European music.

 

These two so dissimilar Iranians also explore American jazz, Brazilian rhythms, Turkish or southern Iranian melodies, Celtic or Klezmer music and nothing seems artificial as marriages seem to flow from each other.

 

Through Manushan, Aida Nosrar and Babak Amir Mobasher have decided to explore the spiritual heritage of the Manouche people with music that is as rooted as it is open to the world, as auditive as it is respectful of the past. As they indicate in Persian: it is a contemporary Iranian acoustic music.

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