Centripetal Force (North America), Cardinal Fuzz (UK), and Radio Khiyaban (Europe) are buzzing with strange vibrations, thrilled to unveil Noor-e Vojood, the second album from Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian—an artist whose hands seem less like human appendages and more like vessels channeling something ancient and cosmic.
The album arrives both in the infinite, ephemeral realm of digital sound and in the tangible, dust-gathering form of a 500-copy vinyl pressing. The preorder portal opened on January 24th, and the album officially arrives on March 7th.
Mostafa entered existence on January 1, 2002, in Kermanshah, a city that breathes in the scent of history and exhales the echoes of tanbur strings. The tanbur—part instrument, part spiritual artifact—has lived in this region for over 5,000 years, its sound woven into the very fabric of Yarsan mysticism.
This Kurdish sect, known for their hypnotic jâm rituals, has carried their sacred melodies through a thousand years of whispered prayers and ecstatic reverberations.
Music isn’t just something Mostafa learned—it’s something he absorbed, like rain seeping into the earth. His father, Morteza, played the dâf, a frame drum that sounds like distant thunder, and by the age of 20, he was crafting tanburs with his own hands.
The house was filled with the scent of fresh-cut wood and the steady heartbeat of tradition. Mostafa’s path was laid before him before he could even name it.
Mostafa’s journey took an unexpected detour when he met Valentin Portron, a wandering French musician who had become obsessed with tanbur after watching grainy videos of the legendary Seyyed Khâlil Alinejad.
Mostafa’s love for Alinejad was just as deep. Their shared musical obsessions (and mutual command of English) formed an almost supernatural bond.
In 2020, Valentin asked Mostafa to record tanbur for his experimental rock band, Portron Portron Lopez. As if possessed, Mostafa rushed to a small studio in Karaj and conjured three improvisational pieces. Something clicked, and a new vision took shape. Teaming up with dâf player Behzâd Varâshte—his neighbor and rhythmic confidant—Mostafa recorded three more tracks.
The result was his first album, Songs of Horaman, a record born from chance and channeled through the pulse of something greater than himself.
Initially hesitant—“I’m not a master!” he protested—Mostafa eventually agreed to release the album. It landed on Bandcamp in 2021, where it was swiftly discovered by NR Safi from Radio Khiyaban.
Soon, it was given a proper release through a coalition of labels (Centripetal Force in the U.S., Cardinal Fuzz in the U.K., and Ramble Records in Australia). By 2022, Songs of Horaman had found its way onto cassette and vinyl, catching the attention of the BBC, Mojo, WFMU, and even French television.
The seeds of Noor-e Vojood were planted in 2021 when Mostafa and Valentin secured time at the legendary Bell Studio in Tehran—hallowed ground, Iran’s oldest recording space, where sound is sculpted into permanence.
It was here that Mostafa sought something different. Precision. Intention. A sound that felt both ancient and brand new.
His father, Morteza, gifts him a new tanbur every year, each one seemingly imbued with a more profound spirit. For this album, he played a tanbur named Mostafa—a recursive loop of identity, a meeting of maker and muse.
With dohool player Morteza Rezâei joining the fold, the album was recorded in a mere two days, almost entirely in one take, as though the music already existed in the ether, waiting to be plucked from the air.
The title Noor-e Vojood—”The Light of Existence”—is no accident. Mostafa sees music as illumination, a beacon against the darkness of an uncertain world. He believes in its power to comfort, connect, and transcend.
He plays not for himself but as an offering, a gift, a bridge between the material and the immaterial. To hear his tanbur is to experience an intimacy rare in this life—a sound so personal that it feels like it’s whispering directly into your bones.
The new album continues a story far older than Mostafa himself. Noor-e Vojood is merely the next chapter in this never-ending story.
Mostafa currently studies Persian classical music at Tehran University, dissecting the râdif—the elusive, intricate melodies passed down through generations. He studies setâr and târ under the greatest masters Iran has to offer, absorbing the essence of those who came before him.
And yet, the tanbur remains his guide. The music flows through him, as inevitable as the passing of time.
Pre-order Noor-e-Vojood by Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian on Bandcamp here.
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