Faramarz Aslani
Faramarz Aslani wrote his own words, composed his own music, and sang them himself, three jobs Persian pop of his era usually gave to three different people. Born in Tehran in 1945, he trained as a journalist in London and was an editor at the Tehran Journal when the president of CBS Records International heard him play his own songs at a party at the singer Pari Zangeneh's home, and offered him a record deal. The album that came of it, Delmashghooliha, appeared in 1977 and carried the songs he is remembered by. He died in Maryland on the evening of Nowruz, March 20, 2024.
His sound set him apart before anything else: acoustic guitar and stripped-down arrangements in a pop scene built on orchestras - a texture that came into Persian song with him. On Delmashghooliha, made for CBS in 1977 with Stepanian producing and the guitarist Armik in the sessions, the space around the voice is the point; Aslani lets the quiet do the work. Ageh Ye Rooz shows the method whole: a farewell told plainly, with nowhere to hide and no need to. He stayed a man of letters as much as a musician - a trained journalist who wrote his own words all his life - and it is audible: the lyrics scan like sentences someone finally said out loud.
