Contemporary minimal Iranian music accompanied by riffs and rhythms.

Band Members:
Aida Shahghasemi - Voice
Jeremy Ylvisaker - Guitar
Max Ylvisaker - Guitar
Joey Hays - Drums

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Aida Shahghasemi is a Minneapolis-based musician with roots in Iran. She studied psychology and anthropology at University of Minnesota with a focus on the cultural aspects of Persian classical music and the restrictions imposed on the voices of Iranian female vocalists. She received her master’s degree in arts politics from New York University, where she also taught a course she developed on arts activism in Iran. She has been a touring member of Iron & Wine and Marketa Irglova’s bands and sang on two of Glen Hansard’s albums. Her three albums are Wind Between the Horse’s Ears (2015), Cypress of Abarkooh (2019), and Chashmandaaze Rooydaad (2022). Shahghasemi is a McKnight Music Fellow and serves as an adjunct faculty in the MFA program at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is a mental health therapist at Hiraeth Psychotherapy and works primarily with adults and couples dealing with trauma.

Jeremy Ylvisaker is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, teacher, and visual artist whose music and images are influenced by decades of wildly disparate collaborations with artists both popular (e.g., Laufey, Bon Iver, Suki Waterhouse, Sara Bareilles, Andrew Bird, Bruce Hornsby) and, more often, underground. These friendships are reflected in many solo recordings; with his trio Alpha Consumer; in his multimedia series Nights for All Time; in his contributions to soundtracks such as Aggregate States of Matters (MoMA), Reframed: Forgotten Film Remembered (Walker Art Center), and Macbeth on Broadway; and in an improvised score alongside Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Some of his favorite art is collaborations between taggers, the people who paint over their tag, and the people who mark where utilities are.

Joey Hays is a multi-instrumentalist and performer from Minneapolis. His extensive discography and touring experience include performances with Boyish, Bad Bad Hats, Samia, and Hippo Campus. Hays’s skill and versatility continue to lead to opportunities both nationally and internationally. When he’s home, Hays enjoys cooking and doing 100 push-ups in a short span of time.