Nazanin Noori (Persian: نازنین نوری ; IPO: [ˈnɑːzəniːn ˈnʊəri/]) is an artist, who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her interdisciplinary work includes sound art, performance, installation, direction for theater and radio play, and text.
With a formal education in theater, film and media studies, Noori addresses the merging of sound, space, sculpture and post-dramatic poetry, focussing on atmospheric narratives.
Her theatre work has been staged at Deutsches Theater, Schauspiel Hannover and Berliner Ensemble. Her performances have been inter alia staged at Berliner Festspiele, Villa Massimo, Halle am Berghain, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, as well as Schauspielhaus Zürich.
Her debut album 'FARCE' was released in 2020. In the same year, she had a residency at Akademie der Künste in Berlin, as part of Junge Akademie. Her sound, room and video installation 'AMBIENT ROOM' was on view at EIGEN + ART Lab in Berlin in 2021. Her latest sound and room installation 'APOLOGY' was on view at Akademie der Künste in Berlin in 2022. Her newest sound piece 'HAAL', commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur, premiered in 2022.
Nazanin Noori has a residency at Malmö-based Retreat Radio and at Berlin-based Refuge Worldwide. Furthermore, she has produced sound scenarios for Deep House Tehran, Mutant Radio, EOS Radio and Radio AlHara inter alia.
Works
(Excerpt)
01 / 2023
Sound, Video Installation
SCRATCHING THE SURFACE OF A DAMNED SPOT IS AN ACT OF INTERROGATION
Nazanin Noori’s sound and video installation 'SCRATCHING THE SURFACE OF A DAMNED SPOT IS AN ACT OF INTERROGATION' was commissioned by and exhibited as part of Transmediale's "Out Of Scale".
In an attempt to echo the revolutionary protests in Iran, Kurdistan and Balochistan, 'SCRATCHING THE SURFACE OF A DAMNED SPOT IS AN ACT OF INTERROGATION' focuses on the outpouring of anger and fear over government repression, violence, and faltering economy.
At transmediale warehouse, a monologue can be seen and heard as a religious individual recalls his psychosis-like experience that was triggered by a visit to a shrine. Recounting the experience, he conveys his feelings of self-hatred, guilt, and shame, as well as the powerlessness he experienced. Disorienting the listener, the hypnotizing and terrorizing effects of his psychosis lie at the center of Nazanin Noori’s newest installation, an absurdified depiction of patriarchy and a commentary on devastating systemic oppression. Reminding us that the echo of protest is distant to the protest, Noori attempts to understand what it might mean to observe, act, and participate across temporalities and geographies.
Kindly supported by Lars Murasch from Murasch and Sons and Etritanë Emini.
01 / 2023
Sound Performance
AMBIENT HARDCORE
Nazanin Noori has performed a two-hour live set at Halle am Berghain, as a part of Berghain's "SILVESTER KLUBNACHT".
12 / 2022
Sound Piece
HAAL
Nazanin Noori’s sound piece 'HAAL' was commissioned by and premiered at Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
'HAAL' is a post-industrial composition that blends atmospheric modular synth drones together with samples from traditional ethnic hymns and chants of the Sufis. Drones appear in pop culture, mainly in films, as spherical sound surfaces or as sentimental markers characterised by their atmospheric roaring sound and meditative monotony. 'HAAL' refers to the Sufist state of ḥāl, which involves leaving habitual consciousness in order to develop an internal sensorial world separate from that of the musician.
‘HAAL' was initially developed for the 'The Sun Machine Is Coming Down' festival by Berliner Festspiele in 2021. Nazanin Noori was playing it as a live set at ICC's Saal 2. She has reworked the entire piece. It is 55 minutes long.
Mixing and Mastering by Kujo (Modular Mind Studios)
Artwork by Nazanin Noori
Listen to the sound piece here.
10 / 2022
Sound Performance
TCS
Azin Zahedi, Nazanin Noori and Shabnam Parvaresh perform as a trio as part of the Tehran Contemporary Sounds Festival.
Azin Zahedi is a multi-instrumentalist with a background in Iranian Classical Music and Transcultural Electroacoustic Music, playing the santoor, bansuri and transverse flute in the performance. Nazanin Noori is a modular synthesist, whose overall work stems from music that is performed in ritual practices. The sound artist’s compositions are primarily in the Healing Sounds and Spherical Ambient realm, branching out into Doom Electronics. Shabnam Parvaresh is a clarinetist and bassclarinetist, whose improvisational language and electro-acoustic work emphasise on the combination of elements of Traditional Iranian Folk with elements of Jazz.
By uniting different strands of music and recontextualizing unique sets of harmonics, the emotional narrative is in the very center of the trio's sound. Their compositions explore various forms of minimalism: From heavy meditative environments to paired-down chords and unwavering repetitions. The trio aspires to establish Post-Diaspora-Soft-Levantine-Breakcore Jazz as a music genre.
08 / 2022
Sound Scenario + Interview
#003
Nazanin Noori was interviewed by Malak Al Suwaihel for SONDUKE magazine. Her latest sound scenario '#003' was premiered there as well.
"In this exclusive SONDUKE mix, Noori’s 'sound scenario' exalts the everpresent ethereal potentiality of Islamic sound in artistic application. While in this exclusive SONDUKE interview she describes the process of composing this mix as 'dark', yet 'invigorating' in its potency to grapple with 'different manifestos — a meditative process."
Listen to the sound scenario here.
07 / 2022
Lecture Performance
THE POETIC SPECULATION ON THE HISTORY OF SILENCE ENDS WITH ONE FUCKING CLAP
Nazanin Noori’s lecture performance 'THE POETIC SPECULATION ON THE HISTORY OF SILENCE ENDS WITH ONE FUCKING CLAP' was premiered as part of the event "Death by Landscape" by Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Alphabet Recordings. Her 15-minute performance on a boat on the Spree, included a quadrophonic sound surface, a singing part, as well as a dramatic reading, in which she analyses the misconception of silence and attempts to trick the audience into sound therapy.
Find an excerpt of the performance here.
11 / 2021 - 06 / 2022
Sound Scenarios + Sound Performance
POST AMBIENT HARDCORE IS VOCAL AMBIENT HARDCORE
Nazanin Noori had a residency on EOS Radio, a community radio station based in Frankfurt am Main.
Apart from that, she performed a live set 'POST AMBIENT HARDCORE IS VOCAL AMBIENT HARDCORE' at Museum für Angewandte Kunst, as part of EOS Air.
Listen to the sound scenarios for EOS Radio here.
06 / 2022
Sound Piece
IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE THE POET LIES
Nazanin Noori has produced a 5-minute NOISE AMBIENT HARDCORE piece for the compilation "Virgin Forest" on traumgarten that is out now, called 'IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE THE POET LIES'.
Listening with a hi-fi sound-system is highly recommended in order to experience the power of sound. The music is not available on any streaming platform, but Bandcamp.
Mixing: James Ginzburg
Mastering: Glyn Maier
From somewhere that is nowhere, traumgarten presents "Virgin Forest" – 21 sonic renditions of unadulterated beauty emerging from their cocoons for the first time. Insulated from the dogma of mass consciousness, every track is its own unique sanctuary, yielding only to the creative urges of its maker. Their second benefit compilation harvests the dreams of globally and cosmically diverse protagonists, with otherworldly sounds spanning the spectrum, from ambient meditations and percussive tribal fantasia to bass heavy club concoctions and glitched-out grooves. An ode to parallel universes, dormant desires, and all the unexplored paths of our finite existence.
All proceeds from this compilation will be split between three organisations: "Alianza Arkana", a grassroots organization committed to the protection, development and wellbeing of the Peruvian Amazon and the indigenous Shipibo-Konibo peoples; "Everyday Refugees", a foundation that aids refugees, local communities, and people internally displaced by war; and "Bridges Over Borders", a community-based collective offering support to BIPoC, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalised individuals fleeing Ukraine.
Listen to the sound piece here.
06 / 2022
Sound Performance
WIRED
As part of "Klangteppich, Festival for music of the Iranian diaspora", at Theater Aufbau, Azin Zahedi (santoor), Shabnam Parvaresh (bass clarinet), Farahnaz Hatam (electronics) and Nazanin Noori (electronics), as well as Haleh Redjaian (installation) have worked on a piece 'WIRED' that deals with the technical peculiarities of telegraphy in the relationship between sound, space and musical communication, with its significance in geopolitical power struggles of European powers in Iran and as an instrument for organizing civil disobedience. The ensemble awakens buried perceptions of telegraphy as noise music and installation, recalling the evolution of electronic music from communications technology.
Find the full video of the performance here.
03 / 2022
Installation, Text, Audio Play
APOLOGY
Nazanin Noori's 'APOLOGY' was staged at Akademie der Künste as part of the exhibition "What Matters" from March 13 to April 09, 2022.
'APOLOGY' is a lyrical drama in two acts. Originally conceived as a theatre play, it consists of a text, an audio play and an installation. The piece describes a liminal place that is periodically haunted by the deceased characters of the story. In the ruins of an amusement park in the Christian limbo, the protagonists wait for their judgement of the dead and are accompanied by a commentator, drums and the voice of God singing. The piece ends with a confrontation between Little Edgar and a lamb called Oskar. It is a grotesque secession of Socrates’ defence speech in Plato’s “Apology of Socrates” and Empedocles’ justification manners in Friedrich Hölderlin’s “The Death of Empedocles”.
The exhibition features an excerpt from the 31-minute long audio play in English language, presented in a static stage space. The entire audio play was premiered at the closing event of the exhibition.
Written and produced by: Nazanin Noori
Recorded at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music, Akademie der Künste, with the support of Julian Jackson
Mixed by: James Ginzburg
Starring: Kate Strong as 'Mother Kate' / Edgar Eckert as 'Little Edgar' / Ria as 'Auntie Maria' / Oskar Suenkel as 'Oskar The Lamb' / Nazanin Noori as 'The Commentator' / Brendan Doughtery as 'The Drummer' / Patrick Mason as 'The Voice Of God'
Kindly supported by Lars Murasch from ”Murasch and Sons” and Sebastian Grimm from “Einklang HiFi”.
Find images of the installation here.
10 / 2021
Sound Performance
HAAL
Nazanin Noori performed 'HAAL' at the ICC Berlin as part of Berliner Festspiele's "The Sun Machine Is Coming Down".
'HAAL' is a post-industrial composition that blends atmospheric modular synth drones together with samples from traditional ethnic hymns and chants of the Sufis. Drones appear in pop culture, mainly in films, as spherical sound surfaces or as sentimental markers characterised by their atmospheric roaring sound and meditative monotony. 'HAAL' refers to the Sufist state of ḥāl, which involves leaving habitual consciousness in order to develop an internal sensorial world separate from that of the musician.
Find further information on the performance here.
08 / 2021
Sound, Room and Video Installation
AMBIENT ROOM
'AMBIENT ROOM' is a walk-in sound, room and video installation at EIGEN+ART Lab by Nazanin Noori, in which the artist makes the transition between the states of being her subject of discussion, restaging the gallery into a liminal space.
"Due to being in the first generation to have access to constant and infinite war reportage in real time, we experience an extent culture of political despair. With 'AMBIENT ROOM', I intend to build a space, in which our understanding of sonic and visual syntaxes get shifted. A space that therefor allows us to turn inwards. I intend to provoke a mental state that loosens a structure of thinking. Accordingly all elements in the installation resist obvious imagery and pave the way for ritual detachment from the prevailing orders of perception."
The walk-in sound, room and video installation performs a 13-minute ritual ambient piece and stages a room in room theatre, in which a video piece is displayed on a screen.
"To me, music is sacral and music is equal, is utopic. My interdisciplinary work roots in sound. I produce music, I write sound poetry, I direct radio plays, I collect and re-contextualize ritual music - in my theatre work I bring these strands together. Catharsis and Deep Listening are therefore interconnected to me."
'AMBIENT ROOM' is supposed to enable an inner dialogue on the raw, the distant and the mantric. An ambient performance that experiments with the expansion of consciousness, performing the spiritual quality of music. The work is a tribute to Antonin Artaud's "Theatre Of Cruelty", to mindfulness and to Pauline Oliveros' "Sonic Meditation", "Deep Listening" and her silent activism.
Kindly supported by Lars Murasch from Murasch and Sons, Sebastian Grimm from Einklang Hifi, KEF, Etritanë Emini with her camera work, as well as Phil Maier with the audio mastering.
Find images of the installation here.
08 / 2021
Sound Performance
AMBIENT HARDCORE
Nazanin Noori has performed at Villa Massimo as part of "Berlin-Rome-Express".
She presented Dark Ambient, Contemporary Classical, Drone and Chant, combining Sufi devotional music with manipulated and unreleased tracks by the producer herself.
The performance refered to the Sufist state of ḥāl and Pauline Oliveros’s Deep Listening methods, which involve leaving habitual conciousness in order to develop an internal sensorial world separate from that of the musician.
Find an image of the performance here.
08 / 2021
Sound Performance
AMBIENT HARDCORE
Nazanin Noori has performed a sound scenario at Berghain Garden, as a part of the "Hangout" series.
Find further information on the performance here.
07 / 2021
Sound Scenario
CORRESPONDENCE
Nazanin Noori has recorded a sound scenario for Edited Arts CORRESPONDENCE series that will be memoralised on a USB and stored in a buried time capsule.
Listen to the sound scenario here.
06 / 2021
Sound Performance
AMBIENT HARDCORE
Nazanin Noori performed one hour of Dark Ambient, Contemporary Classical, Power Electronics, Trip Hop, Drone and Chant and an hour of devotional music of the Sufis from South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East in the mix with manipulated and unreleased music from the producer herself at the Grünton Festival at Schauspielhaus Zürich.
Find further information on the performance here.
06 / 2021
Sound Scenario
#304
Nazanin Noori has recorded a sound scenario for Deep House Tehran's "Tehran Night mix series".
Listen to the sound scenario here.
04 / 2021
Lyrical Mini Drama
EPILOGUE
Nazanin Noori wrote a lyrical mini drama for a publication of the Akademie der Künste "Who were we, You and I?" The drama is called 'EPILOGUE'.
The plot: A is seeking dialogue with B yet again, after a break-up. B is tired of fighting with A. B tries to find excuses to end the conversation. A feels unheard. B feels threatened. A kills B. A kid appears out of nowhere, searching for the way home. A is paralyzed. The kid leaves A. A goes insane. A commits suicide. The chorus in the play directs the situation displayed. The play does not end.
Find excerpts of the lyrical mini drama here.
02 / 2021
Sound Scenario Series
AMBIENT HARDCORE
'AMBIENT HARDCORE' is a mix series by Nazanin Noori on Refuge Worldwide, a community radio station based in Berlin. A bimonthly hour of Dark Ambient, Contemporary Classical, Power Electronics, Trip Hop, Drone, Chant and Noise in the mix with manipulated and unreleased music from the producer.
Listen to the sound scenario series here.
08 / 2020
Album
FARCE
Nazanin Noori's debut album 'FARCE' is going to be released on enmossed.
The cassette contains two tracks, each at 40 minutes in length. They both tell the story of a group of people that unduly fear a pothole in a road surface. They talk themselves into a rage in order to find out that the pothole is no danger to them, after a kid sets its foot inside. The first track tells the story from the perspective of the road and the second track tells the story from the perspective of the pothole.
Title: FARCE
Format: Album (Cassette, Digital)
Label: enmossed
A-side:
IMAGINE ALL THAT FALL
IN A POTHOLE
ON A BEAUTIFUL DAY
B-side:
IMAGINE ALL IN A HALL
Mastering: Martijn Comes
06 / 2019
Sound Scenario Series
POMP
'POMP' is a sound scenario series by Nazanin Noori on Retreat Radio, an independent Malmö-based radio station. The series is broadcast monthly. A podcast that descents into the backdoor of the pompous. With Esoterica, Sound Poetry and Acid Folk.
THE DARKNESS RETURNS.
Listen to the sound scenario series here.
10 / 2019
Soundtrack
CENTER SHIFT #1
'CENTER SHIFT #1' is the first episode of a series by Cemile Sahin. Nazanin Noori and Salem Rashid have produced the score for this work that was shown at the Ars Viva exhibition in the GFZK in Leipzig.
Find further information on the piece here.
11 / 2019
Theatre Play
REGIME OF LOVE
Text by Tanja Šljivar at Deutsches Theater Berlin, Box.
A post-apocalyptic story. The last human being and two probands try out emotional violence. There is no voice of reason, but a regime of love that regains its power by choreographing a fight. Without society. All actors celebrate the new love.
Direction, Music: Nazanin Noori
Stage and Costume Design: Carla Satoca Berges, Vanessa Vadineanu
Dramaturgy: David Heiligers
Animation: Lukas Kühleitner
With Caner Sunar, Jan Breustedt, Maral Keshavarz and Edgar Eckert.
Sponsoring by Dyson GmbH.
Find images of the piece here.
04 / 2018
Audio Theatre Play
VENUS AND ADONIS
Based on the dramatic poem by William Shakespeare, adapted by Nazanin Noori at Deutsches Theater Berlin, Box.
Mars has a drinking problem. He is left by his beloved. Venus falls in love with a mortal. He rejects her, she is suffering from her love. Adonis is a freak. He falls in love with a cow. He tries to eat the animal. The cow is a murderer. A spring pheasant's eye.
A metadramatic mistake. A hypnoacoustic pressure ulcer.
Direction: Nazanin Noori
Stage Design: Ole Meergans
Costume Design: Rahwa Oreyon
Video: Cemile Sahin
Music: Etkin Cekin, Niklas Kraft
With Caner Sunar, Edgar Eckert, Maria Ahmed, Thomas David Mairs.
Find images of the piece here.
06 / 2017
Live Radio Play
MOTHER
Based on T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men", Walt Whitman's "Song Of Myself", Vladimir Mayakovsky's "Tragedy" and Einar Schleef's "Mothers", adapted by Nazanin Noori at Staatsschauspiel Hannover, Cumberlandsche Galerie (Montagsbar).
Nazanin Noori has edited different poetic pieces from the 20th century that merge into a growling chant of a son that lost his mother. Two actors and two singers tell the story of disappearance.
A live doom metal and drone radio play.
Direction, Text: Nazanin Noori
Music: Daniel Nerlich
With Daniel Nerlich, Johanna Bantzer, Christoph Müller, Nazanin Noori.
03 / 2017
Audio Theatre Play
THE COCKROACH / THE STEELWORK
Text by Cemile Sahin at Staatsschauspiel Hannover, Cumberlandsche Galerie.
'THE COCKROACH' is a dramatic mini-series by Cemile Sahin, telling the story of a reunion of a dead man with his mother. The second part of the play that is called 'THE STEELWORK' is the story of a dead man in conversation with a choir of the elderly.
Direction, Costume Design, Music: Nazanin Noori
Stage Design, Video: Cemile Sahin
With Hagen Oechel and a choir.
10 / 2016
Sound Installation
THE UNABOMBER MANIFESTO: THE INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE
Original by Theodore Kaczynski, adapted by Nazanin Noori at Staatsschauspiel Hannover, as part of "Das große Anadigiding-Ende-Gelände".
'THE UNABOMBER MANIFESTO: THE INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE' is a manifesto that was written by a terrorist. Nazanin Noori created a sound poetic rework based on the text by Theodore Kaczynski.
Direction, Production: Nazanin Noori
With Günther Harder, Joachim Müller, Nazanin Noori.
08 / 2016
Audio Theatre Play
THE COCKROACH / THE PEST THE BLARE
Text by Cemile Sahin at Staatsschauspiel Hannover, Cumberlandsche Galerie.
'THE COCKROACH' is a dramatic mini-series by Cemile Sahin, telling the story of a reunion of a dead man with his mother. The first part of the play that is called 'THE PEST THE BLARE' is the story of a dead man passing by his dead mother and brother that do not acknowledge each other.
Direction, Costume Design, Music: Nazanin Noori
Stage Design: Cemile Sahin, Ole Meergans
With Laura Friedmann, Yves Dudziak, Niklas Binzberger, Katharina Zerr, Nazanin Noori.