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I hate summer.

"Abrahadabra" is a reflection of my exaggerated personal feelings. It is the first endeavor to my idea of “pictorial rock” - i.e. composition of sounds that recite a sequence of mental pictures. Actually all of these instrumental tracks have a real-life story behind them. There are very vague allusions to these stories in the CD booklet. e.g. “Route” is the story of a death ceremony and recites the mourning over the dead in a way that is done in eastern culture. Or “Told to the Bird” is the story of my own confession to a bunch of flying birds in a ritualistic way... In one sentence, while composing this album, I felt very lovesick, idealist and outraged.

Iranian art rock musician Salim released his 5th album, "Human Encounter". This is a concept album with a story backing up by the artist's real life experiences. Most of the songs are dedicated to events of his life or to the human beings he adores. Here is the full story: [...]

"Human Encounter" is available in MP3 and CD format at <url>. Also watch this album's video trailer at <url>.

Welcome to my daydream: "Avant-garde ancient art-rock from Iran".

Anything the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve

Dealing with these problems is all a matter of experience.

As I came to Earth in 1981, I involuntarily came into contact with human race. Except for a few bright encounters, I found the rest, dark and ugly. “Human Encounter” is my diary of these encounters. This album is divided into two categories:

The “dark side” reflects the ugly experiences. I noticed that human beings have a tendency to call everything by a name and misunderstand it later. So I do not care what they may actually mean by a word like "evil"; but no doubt human beings themselves are the main source of terror, pain and destruction on Earth.

The “bright side” reflects the pleasures I encountered in this planet. I say no pleasure happens on Earth without a human medium; so the corresponding songs are dedicated to individual human beings. Of course at first sight, Earth seems physically alluring, but those are only temporary characteristics. The only immortal thing is what a man creates.

Now that I am departing this planet, I will only miss a few people like those I named in the “bright side”... Let the others putrefy in the abyss of time.

"When There is More Beauty in the Contrary", Negar and Salim's single released on 1/1/11, is an oud and electric guitar instrumental. It is a portrayal of ancient east versus modern west.

"Combining traditionally dissimilar forces into one cohesive composition", this song reflects its composers' backgrounds in Persian contemporary and progressive rock genres.

"Sovereign" is an instrumental recitation of Shahnameh (The Epic of Kings) i.e. an extensive Persian epic poem written by Ferdowsi as a collection of Persian mythologies. Here you will find western rock instrumentation with eastern flavor. Some songs, I think, are apt to be adapted for traditional Iranian dance; especially “Sovereign” and “Harem” tracks. Actually, I am looking forward to the choreographic performance adaptations for this work whenever possible. Imagine Iranian "Coffee-house paintings" and belly dance with distorted guitars performing cheerful rhythms... Unusual combination? No, to me that sounds all natural!

I dream... and dream... and dream...
I live in my world of fantasy.
Walking in this world, I compose as I hear, and rest as I quiet.
Pictorial rock is a term I use for my music that is usually based on series of mental images, a nightmare or maybe dreams of a sound sleep... As a listener, you have to wait for the pictures to materialize in your mind!

'A Satire on Hell' is daarvan een goed voorbeeld en een van mijn favoriete tracks. Maar wellicht is er in Iran nooit iets doorgedron- gen van The Enid, dat sluit ik niet uit, dus dit 'hineininterpretieren' is geheel voor mijn rekening.