Growing songs 

The popular Iranian artist Mahsa Vahdat and seven of her students have cultivated these songs. Henning Sommerro has arranged them as duets between the students and the Norwegian singer Kjersti Kveli. You can hear the result on the new album “Growing Songs”.

There are oases of songs in Iran. The tyrannical regime has created a climate that has desiccated the musical landscape. No women are allowed to blossom with their colourful voices. In the middle of this barren landscape Mahsa Vahdat has created an oasis, a fertile garden where she and her students can grow songs. The oasis has branches reaching out from Iran to Iranian diasporas around the world. 

Now you can find a selection of the songs they have grown on a music release from KKV. When you open this herbarium and listen to the songs Mahsa and her students have grown, you will discover their beauty and understand how they manage to preserve and develop Iran’s ancient musical garden.  

But you will not only hear Iranian singers and the Persian language on this album as a unique Norwegian musical talent is also participating. Her name is Kjersti Kveli, a singer from the Norwegian region of Snåsa. She is a rare mixture of a folk music traditionist and singer/songwriter. Henning Sommerro has composed melodies based on the Persian material but adapted for Kjersti’s voice.  

The original texts have been written by contemporary Iranian poets such as Forough Farrokhzad, Houshang Ebtehaj and classical poets such as Hafez and Rumi. Mahsa Vahdat and Erik Hillestad have rendered them into Norwegian for Kjersti Kveli. The theme is the enigmatic paths of love and the mysteries of life. 

Henning accompanies on piano with Gjermund Silset on bass and the Iranian flute player Mehdi Teymoori. When listening to the music you will discover how the flowers Mahsa and her students have grown can become beautiful bouquets together with the singers and musicians from two cultures. 

The seven students, all with backgrounds from Iran, are Adrienne Shamzad, Sally Kheirandish, Elana Sasson, Yasaman, Emma, Shay and Kiana. They live in Norway, Iran, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and the USA. They have selected the poems and collaborated with Mahsa on shaping the melodies. The album has been produced by Mahsa Vahdat and Erik Hillestad and recorded and mixed by the latter. The project is part of a long-term music education project established and led by Mahsa Vahdat. This part of it is funded by Arts and Culture Norway.