Sunday Sessions curated by Music in Exile

Ashkan Shafiei’s forthcoming EP Hunter was recorded as part of the Artist Accelerator Program by Music in Exile – an initiative supporting immigrant artists with non-English language backgrounds to launch and grow their careers in Australia. For Ashkan, the program provided a powerful opportunity to redefine his musical identity within the Australian landscape.

The five-track EP features four original tracks arranged for his band, alongside a heartfelt solo cover of “Chi Begam” by the legendary Marzieh. The recording process with Jonathan Boulet (Party Dozen, Body Type) was a special one as it was his first experience recording everything live as a full ensemble – a departure from the usual studio procedure. The result is a deeply personal and sonically rich body of work that captures the raw spirit of Iranian funk through a uniquely Australian lens.

“Ever since I started learning and playing rubab, I began to think of the way I could use this instrument in my music. Rubab is a special instrument to me because it allowed me to give my music new dimensions sonically and in terms of form, which led to creation of Hunter and the EP. In contrast with all my previous recordings, in Hunter and this whole EP, I knew exactly what I wanted to capture sonically, which was the result of 3 years of exploring rubab to find its sweet spot in my songwriting/compositions.”

Ashkan is deeply influenced by the golden era of Iranian contemporary music from the 1960s and ’70s – a time when Persian classical traditions met the sounds of Western pop and rock. Growing up in post-revolution Iran, he discovered this rich musical heritage through forbidden cassette tapes shared among family, igniting a lifelong passion shaped by both resistance and reverence. Now based in Australia, Ashkan carries the legacy of those silenced or displaced artists, using his music to honour their stories and introduce new audiences to the beauty and depth of this often-overlooked era.

Image courtesy Ashkan Shafiei

A meeting between Moroccan Gnawa music and exploratory guitar, improvisation and electronics. Beginning from Imad Dably’s guembri, voice and Gnawa traditions, the duo stretches the music into spacious improvisation, with David Rodriguez’s psychedelic guitar,looping, dub and West African-informed rhythmic ideas. Rather than a fixed fusion project,the performance works as a conversation between two musicians who have played together over a number of years, moving between traditional material, spontaneous improvisation and newly created pieces.

Image courtesy Imad Dably and David Rodriguez

Maryam Rahmani is an Iranian-born composer, vocalist and santur player living in Adelaide, South Australia. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Traditional Music Performance from Tehran University.

Maryam’s musical journey began at the age of twelve, and has seen her study with some of the great masters of Persian classical music in Iran. Enthusiastic about the intricate interplay of rhythm and poetry, Maryam’s love for literature naturally led her to explore different forms of poetic metre and its integration into music.

During her university years, she delved into studying the tombak (an Iranian goblet drum), enriching her understanding of rhythm. Fascinated by rhythmic patterns, she has also embraced the art of flamenco dance in Adelaide, blending Persian and Spanish rhythms in her endless love for pushing the boundaries of traditional music.

Maryam strives to preserve and share Persian tradition and culture through her music, and her relocation to Adelaide in 2019 has seen her explore a new world of cross-genre collaboration with many different artists from around Australia. In 2025, she will release her debut album Kamand. The album was recorded at Milestone Studios in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia during her placement in the Artist Accelerator Program, and features collaborations with Rosalie Cocchiaro, Sebastian Collen, David Moran and Gustavo Quintino.

Image courtesy Maryam Rahmani