{"title":"Farhad Farzali","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"echoes-of-prohibited-romance","title":"Echoes of Prohibited Romance","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe project Echoes of Prohibited Romance is the result of the artist Farhad Farzali’s long-term research. It builds on the Azerbaijani song Qal Sənə Qurban—a pan-ethnic anthem that has travelled through many cultural contexts and countries and has been adapted into numerous languages, including Armenian, Turkish, Arabic, and Greek, while resonating across many other communities. Using Qal Sənə Qurban as a starting point is not accidental: Farzali approaches music as a universal, unifying, and humanitarian language of communication. Based on the original composition, the artist has created a new work that incorporates fragments of cover versions of the song in different languages. These voices form, in essence, a multinational choir—an evolving collective body in which cultural translation becomes both material and theme. The project unfolds as a multi-sensory experience in space, thematizing the paradoxes of cultural adaptation. The installation consists of five trays, each fitted with a transducer (turning every tray into a loudspeaker). All trays are connected to an amplifier and a sound card linked to a computer. On the computer, a specially developed algorithm—trained on five vocal performances in Arabic, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Greek, and Turkish—processes the material and produces a single voice. From this unified voice, Farzali constructs a new, self-contained language: a composite speech-song made of fragments, phonetics, and musical gestures drawn from the different versions of Qal Sənə Qurban. What emerges is a “hyper-cover” — a cover at once of all the covers, performed in a language that belongs to none of them individually, yet carries traces of each. The voice performs the song and narrates its journey across cultures, simultaneously speaking in five languages and in this newly formed cryptic language. Through the installation, a unique world is created: the universe of a song.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farhad Farzali","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55272153448833,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0681\/4489\/0155\/files\/Zeynab_Sketch_2026.png?v=1769179037"},{"product_id":"farhad-farzali-child-ice","title":"Child \u0026 Ice","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis browser-based work visualizes the linguistic instability embedded in the Azerbaijani script. Across the 20th century and into the post-Soviet period, the alphabet underwent successive official reforms that repeatedly rewired literacy and collective memory: Arabic script remained in use until Latin was selected as the sole official script in 1929 (after a period of coexistence in the 1920s); the Latin alphabet was reformed in 1933 (with a further adjustment in 1938); Cyrillicization was legislated in July 1939, the new Cyrillic alphabet was approved in November 1939, and the switch took effect on 1 January 1940; the Cyrillic alphabet was simplified in 1958; after independence, a Latin-script alphabet was introduced on 25 December 1991 and revised again on 16 May 1992. The piece presents any Azerbaijani word as a living, unstable entity. Letters continuously morph between their historical variants: Arabic ش dissolves into Cyrillic Ш, which blurs into Latin Ş. The transformations follow an organic choreography, waves of intensity punctuated by pauses and sudden accelerations, accompanied by generative bell-like tones that shift microtonally with each change. This interactive fragment forms part of Dairəvi Dairə (Circle Circular), a larger installation centered on Mirza Alakbar Sabir’s poem “The Child and the Ice”, a text that exists across all these alphabets, each version a palimpsest of political upheaval.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farhad Farzali","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55272514617729,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0681\/4489\/0155\/files\/Screenshot2026-01-23at15.14.14.png?v=1769181294"},{"product_id":"niyazs-lamps","title":"Niyaz's lamps","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA 2020 archival recording of a small “symphony” of fluorescent lights. As the switch is toggled on and off, the lamps respond with delicate, shifting pitches—soft electrical tones that briefly bloom, shimmer, and fade.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAs part of an ongoing inquiry into machine listening, I routed the recorded sound through Suno’s upload analysis to observe how a model narrates what it hears. Its transcription frames the piece as:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Experimental percussion-based composition featuring a rhythmic dialogue between metallic and wooden textures, The piece is built around a steady, mid-tempo 4\/4 pulse characterized by resonant, bell-like strikes on a metal surface, possibly an anvil or heavy pipe, alternating with sharp, dry wooden clacks, The production is raw and minimalist, emphasizing the natural acoustic decay and spatial reverb of a large, industrial room, There is no melodic or harmonic content, focusing entirely on the timbral contrast and rhythmic precision of the percussive hits, The tempo remains constant at approximately 90 BPM, with a repetitive pattern that suggests a mechanical or labor-oriented atmosphere\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farhad Farzali","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55392224641409,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0681\/4489\/0155\/files\/NiyazLamps.png?v=1772807507"}],"url":"https:\/\/gazell.io\/collections\/farhad-farzali.oembed","provider":"GAZELL.iO","version":"1.0","type":"link"}