Sholi —
Hejrat

This lovingly packaged new 7″ from San Francisco’s Sholi contains two cover songs, “Hejrat” by Iranian pop-diva Googoosh, and “Sprout and the Bean” by Joanna Newsom. Sholi interprets both, with lead singer Payam Bavafa singing in Farsi on the Googoosh track.

Googoosh was the most celebrated pop-singer of Iran during the 1970’s before the Islamic Revolution. After the revolution, most pop-music was banned from the country and she stopped singing entirely. Iranians fled to the United States and Europe, and Googoosh’s voice resonated as the soundtrack for their former lives in Iran before everything changed. This 7″ connects these exiled Iranian’s search for cultural identity and understanding with the broader existential themes embedded in Joanna Newsom’s deeply moving song, “The Sprout and the Bean.”

The music itself is sprawling and complex, with intricate, powerful drumming, interweaving guitar arpeggios, beautiful keyboard melodies, and virtuosic vocals. Conceptually and and on a pure sonic level, this is a very special piece of music.