Pouya Ehsaei from London, UK, joins Juno award-winning artist Sadio Sissokho on kora and vocals with Peter Lutek on reeds for a live set uniting electronics with West African music and avant-garde composition. Ehsaei’s knowledge and experience in blending electronic music and acoustic instruments speaks for itself (see Ariwo Boiler Room London Live Set), and Lutek and Sissokho are talented collaborators with the ability to improvise seamlessly.

An Iranian-born musician, sound designer, producer and curator, Pouya Ehsaei has released two solo albums There (2014) and RocRast (2020) as well as two studio albums with his band Ariwo. With a eurorack Analog Rtym, Octatrack, a collection of effect pedals and a Midas Venice 160 mixer, Pouya Ehsaei is constantly “gleaning elusive emotions from a rich, whisked swirl of glistening tones that remain dangerously high in the mix” to produce music. 

Montreal-based Sadio Sissokho is a Senegalese kora player, singer, dancer and percussionist from a renowned griot family. He has accompanied many artists, including Alpha Yaya Diallo, Wilfred LeBouthillier and Ouanani with Jean Arsenault.   

Toronto-based Peter Lutek frequently uses electronics in performance as a way to extend and modify acoustic sounds. Most of his performing is as a reed instrumentalist specializing in improvised music, though for many years he studied classical bassoon. Lutek plays with Tom Richards’ Riverrun, the Avi Granite:6 and Shahab Bradaran’s Circle Band. 

Experimental Link Series contemplates the Persian-Canadian experience by reinvigorating, re-exploring and re-imagining Persian traditional music within contemporary and cosmopolitan Toronto by inviting different musicians from the diaspora to collaborate and perform together. The series will explore connections between identity, culture, and musical creation.

Link Music Lab gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Canadian Heritage, Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.