NL premiere

HUUUM is a Vienna-based trio of musicians featuring Omid Darvish on vocals, Rojin Sharafi on electronics, and Álvaro Collao Leon on reeds. Folkloric reinventors, they delve into the music of the region that is known today as Iran, plucking from the rich branches of this region’s sound to plant its seeds in strange new soil. “I wanted to show the capacity of folk music in Iran,” says vocalist Omid Darvish in The Wire. “When we talk about Iranian music in Europe, we think about people sitting on stage, playing this traditional instrument. You know, this stereotype.” Shattering this stereotype into pieces, HUUUM’s approach is one of visceral rewriting and adept sound-scavenging: Darvish’s voice unfurls reverberating hymns and snarls across rich blankets of noise, triumphant jazzy instrumentation, and blistering electronic beats. Nothing else sounds quite like this. The mythological plant from which the project draws its name – the Haoma plant – is said to aid healing, nourishment, arousal, and to provide intoxicating experiences with no bad side effects; the same could perhaps be said of HUUUM’s music. Stemming from an understanding of the power in folklore, HUUUM sees how a community’s emotions can be channelled and given cathartic relief through language, voice, and song. Ingest it and see where your boughs stretch towards.