Episode 5.3 (February 2025) Ali Balighi is a composer, sound designer and poet born in Tehran, Iran. You can listen to his most recent album Radif of Iranian Music: Home Is Far Away, available now on Bandcamp. Ali’s compositions draw from his poems, sound explorations and experimentations with electronics. These elements combined have led to the creation of many opulent multidisciplinary works and albums. His works have been performed internationally at festivals and conferences such as Sonic Matter, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Hot Air Music Festival, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, NoiseFloor UK Contemporary Music, Research on Contemporary Composition Conference, ClarinetFest, Cortona Sessions for New Music, Audiovisual Frontiers Festival, ICSC 2022 6th International Csound Conference, and Tehran International Electronic Music Festival.
Interviewed by Reid Contreras Woelfle
Program Note:
The music idea is based on a poem:
I leave these words for you—
You, the thirstiest sentence of waiting,
As misty as grandmother’s cigarette smoke,
And so somber
That blue drips
From your footsteps.
◽︎
The house is far away,
The house is so far away,
And this loathsome road smells of oil,
On a snowy night—
The night Afsaneh, the beautiful neighbor,
Took her own life.
Her beauty fell into the courtyard.
Everyone forgot her name —
Everyone, except her eyes.
Oh, those eyes!
◽︎
Tomorrow, I want to go to the bazaar,
To lose myself in its storerooms,
And never return by that path.
Even if the moon rises,
I won’t look at the sky.
If the rain falls, I, too, will weep—
Sightless,
Sightless!
◽︎
The train never came,
And for years amidst the snow,
We dreamt of the sun.
That is why we are poets,
And our loneliness Is the color of waiting.
◽︎
I will write a poem for my mother:
For instance, if I were not here,
You—smile.
Smile,
Even without lips,
Even only with your eyes —
Only with your eyes. —
Ali Balighi
Program:
01:12 – Dastgah: Algorithmic Explorations of Persian Microtonality and Serialism (excerpt 1)
Composed by Ali Balighi, March 2025
9:35 – A Song Below Water (excerpt)
Composed by Ali Balighi, 2022
16:25 – Who am I?
Composed by Ali Balighi, Performed by Kathryn Vetter, 2020
28:39 – Corridor
Composed by Ali Balighi, February 2025
33:38 – Home is Far Away
Composed by Ali Balighi, February 2025
40:28 – Dastgah: Algorithmic Explorations of Persian Microtonality and Serialism (excerpt 2)
Composed by Ali Balighi, March 2025
46:33 – Walking in the Darkness (excerpt)
Composed by Ali Balighi, 2018
61:26 – Dastgah: Algorithmic Explorations of Persian Microtonality and Serialism (excerpt 3)
Composed by Ali Balighi, March 2025
Artist Bio:
Ali Balighi, a composer, sound designer, and sound engineer, was born in Tehran, Iran. He graduated from The University of Art in 2011 with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance. A passion for composition led him to pursue a Master’s degree in Composition at Texas Tech University, where he is currently a student for a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Composition.
A number of research and teaching interests align with Balighi’s academic pursuits, which include music technology, open-source software, contemporary music analysis, and music theory. His teaching experience includes positions as a sound engineer, music recording assistant, composition and music theory teacher, and positions as a cello instructor in various Iranian music institutions.
His publications and awards have made a notable contribution to the field in addition to his academic engagements. Among his poetry collections are My Loneliness Is A Hippo That Loves You and The Forest Was on Fire And The Snail Did Not Know Which Way to Flee. He received a residency and a grant at The Saari Residence in Finland for his electroacoustic ensemble opera, Migration inside. In addition, he won third place in the 5th Reza Korourian Awards 2020 competition for electroacoustic composition. He won second place in the composition competition of Radio Javan (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) 2017 with his composition titled Daramad for Harp and Orchestra.
Balighi’s compositions have been showcased internationally at festivals and conferences, including Sonic Matter, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Hot Air Music Festival, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, NoiseFloor UK Contemporary Music, Research On Contemporary Composition Conference, ClarinetFest, Cortona Sessions For New Music, Audiovisual Frontiers Festival, ICSC 2022 6th International Csound Conference, and Tehran International Electronic Music Festival. His works, such as Daramad for Three Sopranos and Fixed Media, Khane Haftom for Santur, and Too Loud A Solitude for Cello and Live Electronics, have been featured in these platforms.
As a composer, Balighi has released contemporary music albums, including Whispers of Papers, Noise vs. Silence vol. 1, and Intolerance. His compositions have been performed by musicians and ensembles such as Sputter Box ensemble, Front Porch ensemble, Zenith Saxophone Quartet, Twenty Fingers Duo, SynthBeats, The ____ Experiment, Michael Bridge, Parker Fritz, Anoush Moazzeni, Kathryn Vetter, Hamed Shaded, Golnaz Khalili, Puneh Zare’i Sefid Dashti, Neda Asadinejad, Shaghayegh Bagheri, Behnoush Sabetghadam, Negin Goodarzi, Zeinab Hajihasani, and Ulrike Brand.
Balighi actively engages with the music community, holding memberships with the Millennium Composers Initiative in the USA and the Iran Music House. His involvement extends to conferences and collaborations, reflecting his commitment to the global exchange of musical ideas.
For More Information:
Ali Balighi
- Website: https://alibalighi.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ali_balighi/?hl=en
- Bandcamp: https://alibalighi.bandcamp.com/
