Artist News Releases

Liraz works face to face with secret Iranian band for the first time on new album

By | Published on Wednesday 22 June 2022

Liraz

Liraz has announced her third album ‘Roya’ and released new single ‘Azizam’. The record again sees her working with Iranian musicians, who remain anonymous for safety reasons, although on this occasion they managed to work face to face, rather than remotely.

Raised in Israel, Liraz used her debut album ‘Naz’ as a way to connect with her Persian roots – mixing tradition and more modern music and singing entirely in Farsi. After the album was released, she found that Iranian musicians, working under the radar of Tehran’s secret police, began getting in touch.

Eventually, she and some of those musicians began working together online on what would become her second album, ‘Zan’, which was released in 2020. With everyone having stayed in touch, for the third record in what seems to have become an accidental trilogy the anonymous Iranian musicians travelled to Tel Aviv to record with Liraz and her Israeli band.

“All I remember are fragments”, says Liraz of meeting these musicians for the first time, “The fear and anxiety I felt when I knew they were on their way. The tears of joy and relief we all cried as we embraced. And the music we made! Such music!”

Of new single ‘Azizam’ – the title of which translates as ‘Dearest’ – she says: “’Azizam’ is a joyful and rhythmic love song, with an open and honest way of viewing relationships. Two lovers. Hearts bonded together, bodies miles apart. Their longing for each other overpowers all other emotions, a feeling of madness engulfing them. They are crazy about each other, and crazy with unfulfilled wants and desires”.

“These lovers are us”, she goes on. “They are a reflection of my relationship with my Iranian friends. We are bonded together, yet physically distant. Mad with longing, crazy with desire and yet – happy in our love. The emotions are raw and real. The craziness is a reflection of the uncertainties of our world, and the love a reminder that amidst all the chaos, there is still so much laughter and happiness surrounding us”.

Watch the video for ‘Azizam’ here:



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