Historical Songaday: Day 14 (Niyaz - Ghazal)

DAY FOURTEEN: NIYAZ - GHAZA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO-vVHY-Ixs&feature=player_embedded

Niyaz is an Iranian music trio that blend Sufi mysticism with trance electronica. I love it. I like the sound of a lot of the Middle-Eastern instruments, so I really enjoy the sounds these guys use. It's faced by Azam Ali, the female vocalist, and she has a thriving solo career as well that has been met with a lot of success. I found these fellas through Pandora(this song in fact) and have been closely following them ever since.
That feels really short, so I'm going to go a bit more into Azam. Before Niyaz, alongside her solo career, she was member of a group called Vas. It was fundamentally very similar, but instead of being a DJ, Azam, and her husband(which is Niyaz's composition), it was her and Greg Ellis. If you think you've heard his name before, it might be from his involvement with scene superpower Juno Reactor, or from his extensive array of films that he's worked with, which include the Matrix movies(all three I believe), Fight Club, Tomb Raider, and The Chronicles of Narnia. If you add Tyler Bates(another film-music name, with work in many of Zach Snyder's works) to the Vas mix, you get Roseland, who did one album. Oddly, in Roseland, Azam sings fully in English, which she doesn't really do at all in Niyaz. Azam's husband, who now works with her in Niyaz, previously worked in a Persian/western crossover group called Axiom of Choice(which I've been meaning to give a listen to). Azam's solo work features both her vocals and her playing the hammered dulcimer, which she has trained in.
Oh, and some songs from Niyaz's second album, Nine Heavens, got used on True Blood. Maybe you heard some there.

Azam still gets featured all over the place when a middle-eastern female vocalist is needed. She sang for a couple of original compositions for Greg Edmonson's soundtrack for Uncharted 3!

Links:
Niyaz(watch out, autoplay for their music. Disable in the bottom right)
Beni Beni
Golzar
Axiom of Choice
Ida(Axiom of Choice)
Azam Ali
Lass Pour Quoi(Azam Ali)
Greg Ellis
Juno Reactor
Navaras(Juno Reactor)
Vas
Bardo (Vas)
Tyler Bates

End Recording,
Ego.