Zahra Haji Fath Ali Tehrani is an Iranian–Irish queer composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work moves through experimental sound, identity and contemporary composition.
Zahra creates genre-defying compositions that blend lo-fi jazz punk, shoegaze, and folk influences into raw, contemporary expressions of identity and queerness. There are two Irish events happening this week with Tehrani, joined by Jilaine Wheatcroft live, playing:
Thursday November 13th @ Daylight, Glasnevin:
They’ll be joined by Dublin-based Palestinian artist Grainnemir Abulalrob and Belfast sound artist Viva Dean, whose practices span performance, sound and experimental approaches. The two will also be doing some live collaborative work on the night.
It’s a suggested-donation event, with all contributions going directly to the artists and to Daylight. Tickets.
Tehrani will also be doing a Clare date at Common Knowledge on the 14th joined on the night by Natalia Beylis and Darren Kirwan, with a DJ set from Willie Stewart (Nyahh Records) for a new night called Crónán.
Guitarist Niwel Tsumbu is organising All for Barbara – a night of acoustic music featuring Rhiannon Giddens and more to raise funds for his friend Barbara Campbell, who is currently undergoing treatment for glioblastoma – an aggressive form of brain cancer.
The gig takes place on December 3rd at The Sugar Club and features performances from Rhiannon Giddens, Francesco Turrisi, Eamonn Cagney, Niwel and Krea.
Woman in Stem’s End of Year Review is a new club night with a corporate nonsense theme set in Curveball on November 21st with DJs Sleepless Beauty,
‘End of Year Review’ is a response to the insidious brandification of DJ culture…and all culture. This event asks you, have you put in enough blood, sweat and tears to hit your clubbing KPIs this year? Your frequent visits to the company sponsored EAP suggests, yes.
This night is for the girlies and trapped creatives who live in fear of the next email finding them… rest assured it wont find you here. Expect electronic pop, alt-pop, with some cheeky pop edits and a bit of cunty energy sprinkled in.
Speaking of Natalia Beylis, the Leitrim ambient-leaning composer is on tour with their new work Around Here, The Birds Plant The Trees – “a sonic meditation on land stewardship.
A 45-minute composition grown from the sounds, stories and textures of a single field in Leitrim — shaped in real time and unfolding new variations at each performance
This work began with a single blackbird at dawn. Composer Natalia Beylis stood in a field in Leitrim at 6 a.m., looking across a recently clear-felled landscape and reflecting on a conversation with a farmer friend about how birds are the architects of the living landscape. That moment planted the seed for Around Here, The Birds Plant The Trees, a 45-minute composition about listening — to the land, to birds, and to the spaces in between.
Beylis brought together an ensemble — cellist Eimear Reidy, fiddler Tola Custy, violists Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh and Ultan O’Brien, and percussionist Willie Stewart — and together they began to write the piece by spending time in the field listening, taking in the rustle of hedgerows, the whisper of wind through stumps and saplings, and the calls of birds shaping the landscape. From this shared act of listening, the composition took form: collaboratively written, rooted in the textures and rhythms of the field, and ultimately conducted live so that each performance unfolds as a unique variation.
The field itself is surrounded by hedgerows on four sides which are carefully managed by Natalia to provide food and shelter for wrens, robins, blackbirds, shrews, bats, and beetles. Two adjoining fields under her stewardship are cultivated to support wildflowers, dragonflies, and butterflies, allowing natural patterns of growth and seasonal change to flourish. In contrast, two neighboring fields are owned by a faceless commercial forestry company; both were clear-felled once, and while one has been replanted into another industrial cycle with Sitka spruce, the other has, for now, been left to rewild. Here, birds, squirrels, and the wind bring new growth, scattering seeds that may one day create a thriving native woodland — a process entirely outside human planning. Yet the future of both fields remains uncertain, highlighting the complex interplay between stewardship, ecological care, and the policies and priorities that govern the land.
Remaining TOUR DATES
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow — Thu 11 Dec
Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co Louth — Sat 13 Dec
Rory’s Birthday Party is a DIY all-vinyl DJ festival happening in Goleen, West Cork from November 21st to 23rd.
A weekend of music, sea air, and good company on a carbon-neutral eco-reserve at the edge of Ireland. Private coves for swimming, wood-fired saunas, hot tubs, yoga, food vendors, record stalls, and an all-analog sound system built for warmth and depth. Music from noon until late with selectors from across Ireland and beyond, including Specter (Sound Signature / Chicago), The Mighty Zaf (Love Vinyl / BBE / London), Jay L & Andy Mac (Bristol), Andrea Passenger (Light Touches / Dora Exp / Turin), and many more. Just 150 heads. Simple, natural, and grounded.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
