Arash Sasan Band: Green Dreams

Oriental, Mediterranean and Jazzy

At the center of Arash Sasan's music is his expressive, oriental-influenced singing. With tremendous intensity, the Iranian by choice tells of his own experiences or sets classical Persian poetry by poets such as Saadi, Rumi or Hafiz to music. His style of composition on the guitar surprises with strong flamenco influences, a music that has fascinated him since childhood. In Tehran in the 80s, however, a Spanish guitar was no longer welcome, and so Sasan acquired his knowledge more or less secretly and self-taught. Little by little he developed his typical melange of Persian language and Spanish harmony/rhythm.

Currently, in the music of Arash Sasan and his band, oriental influences from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf can be found alongside Mediterranean sounds and jazzy impulses. Sometimes Sasan also picks up on folk songs - such as the legend of the bride "Sari Gelin," who was forced into marriage and takes her own life on her wedding night, sung from the perspective of the loving young man she had actually chosen. Arash Sasan can portray such stories in their depth and drama without being corny. And then in the next song, rhythm and joie de vivre dominate again.

Arash Sasan & Band

For his rhythmically often rousing songs, Arash Sasan has found musical partners in Munich with whom he has been playing for several years: the pianist Josef Reßle, winner of the BMW World Young Artist Jazz Award 2016, the drummer and frame drum player

Stefan Noelle, and the young Venezuelan double bass player Wilbert Pepper, who comes from the fascinating tradition of Venezuela's youth orchestras. From one moment to the next, they go from being sensitive accompanists to furious soloists, only to put themselves completely at the service of Arash Sasan's musical poetry again in the next moment.