Lowen (acoustic) UK
Contact : Gee@durbuyrock.be
Lowen acoustic fuses traditional Iranian music with western music using traditional Eastern instruments, percussion and acoustic guitar alongside traditional folk songs, fully improvised songs and the use of ancient poetry hailing from Mesopotamia.
Lowen mainly focuses on the displaced identity of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nina Saeidi, who lives in permanent exile from Iran.
The ancient world, its art and languages form a backdrop for an exploration of the pain and longing of the diasporically dispossessed in her mournful wails and use of traditional tahrir vocals unique to Iran.
Guitarist Shem Lucas adds his distinctive style to the guitar sections of the music, drawing on both western and eastern influences to create a progressive soundscape that is totally unique to Lowen.
The acoustic arm of Lowen performs rarely and does so using traditional instruments such as the Shruti box, daf and on occasion the santoor alongside the guitar. We can include percussion from our live drummer Flow Toulman that would include the darbuka. When playing in this formation the majority of songs are completely improvised and languages such as Sumerian and Akkadian are used alongside Farsi and English.
Nina worked with renown ethnomuseoarcheologist Richard Dumbrill to learn more on the musical tradition of Mesopotamia and how its music may have sounded. Dumbrill has spent decades researching the ancient music of the Middle East and participating in the excavation of sites such as Nineveh in Iraq.
In 2023 Lowen played shows across the UK including Desertfest, Doomlines, Masters of the Riff, Uprising Festival and recently as a support for Conan in London. In 2024 they will be playing Warhorns Festival, Brighton Doomsday and are touring with Green Lung across the UK and Ireland in May.
Their debut album “A Crypt in the Stars” was released in 2018 and in 2021 they released a live recorded acoustic EP entitled “Unceasing Lamentations” in which 2 of 3 tracks were fully improvised and sung in the ancient languages of Sumerian and Akkadian.
Lowen’s second full length album Do Not Go To War With the Demons of Mazandaran will be recorded with producer Lewis Johns and Kel Pinchin (Ithaca, Pupil Slicer, Svalbard) in January 2024 and released in autumn.