Piltan by Esfand

Two sound inventors from The Hague, Netherlands. Iranian Rouzbeh Esfand and New Zealander Patrick Stewart are ESFAND.

File as: organic hybrid of Folk and Techno.

A unique blend of traditional Iranian sounds and contemporary electronic music, featuring vocal features by renowned Iranian artists. Ecstatic dance music to get lost in.

Esfand is the final month of the Persian calendar, ending with the Nowruz spring festival. ESFAND is also a band, founded in 2020, consisting of Rouzbeh Esfand and Patrick Stewart. A duo that fuses traditional Iranian Folk elements with Western beats to create something completely new.

Their debut album "Piltan" is a flamboyantly danceable statement. No crossover kitsch. Pure instinct music. ESFAND is century- and boundary-crossing music.

The two learnt musicians met during their studies at the conservatory in The Hague. Pat sold Rouzbeh a book on audio production. They went for a beer – the first steps of a new duo.
They went on producing contemporary classical music and created their first songs in collaboration with Iranian artists.

"I'd love to say we had a plan. But there wasn't one," says Rouzbeh. "ESFAND started as my master's thesis. We selected all the samples from a purely musical perspective. The Folk element in our music is significant, but it's not our job to preserve the purity of the culture. We don't discard Iranian traditions; we simply keep the ones that fit best. At the end of the day, they are all just sounds."

For his master's thesis, Rouzbeh studied the millennia-old rituals and customs of various Iranian ethnic groups. "Piltan" is a sonic journey through a vast country full of cultural peculiarities: starting with the southern Zār rituals of the Persian Gulf, moving to the equestrian people of the Bakhtiari in the southwest, on to the Qashqai in the west and to the Kurds in northwestern Iran with their Dervish rituals.

"The south, in particular, is so rich in culture," says Rouzbeh, "there's a ritual for everything there, not just for mourning or finding lost friends."
The first two songs on "Piltan" are based on the repetitive rhythms of the Zār rituals. The demon Zār is in possession of an individual. Usually, a companion repeats certain phrases over and over to induce the patient into ecstasy.

There’s hand drums and a Techno beat in "Bibi Sāghi". There are frantic synth grooves in "O'sedā", dark Dub elements in “Shawl" contrasted by the mechanically stomping "Zār Bits" and "Without Foot, Without Head". Each of the eight songs boasts a sophisticated production – at the highest technical level.

"We’re not just about Techno," says Pat. "It's about feeling, groove and excitement." Vocal features by renowned Iranian artists are tailored to the songwriting.
Singer and percussionist Habib Meftah is featured on two songs. On "Shawl", Mohsen Namjoo guest stars, another Folk expert, singing lyrics by well-known Iranian poets Daqiqi and Farrukhi Sistani. London singer Misagh Moradi is featured on "Without Foot, Without Head", based on texts by world-famous poet Rumi.

"Pat and I never really discussed music; it just happened," says Rouzbeh about the collaboration. "It was a non-verbal communication. We both think alike."

"Piltan" is the follow-up to ESFAND's 2021 debut EP "Héle". Folk meets Techno, millennia-old music meets Western club culture. With ESFAND, we prepare to get lost in the moment, surrender to the rhythm, regardless of our background.

Letting go, switching off, no control of head and feet. That's what ESFAND is about. The lyrics to "Without Foot Without Head" read: "Oh lovely-waisted one, swirl! Dance on!"