A Surrealistic Journey Into the Enigma of Dreams
(TORONTO, ON September 21, 2017) — A single, sharp high G note strikes repeatedly while a disoriented mummified woman in a giant glass jar struggles to orient herself, fighting the puppet like strings that manipulate her movements. These opening images from exciting new Canadian talent and pianist-composer Arash Behzadi’s latest music video “Existence” are as intriguing as they are unsettling.
Like a trapped chrysalis the woman spasmodically fights to emerge. Tense notes stab into the stark imagery, growing in emphasis, dissolving into a pointed tremolo and bursting into powerful optimistic chords underscoring and encouraging the effort to break free. Reminiscent of the early work of the provocative avant garde surrealist filmmaker, Luis Buñuel, with its juxtaposition of enigmatic dreamlike images, “Existence” explores a journey into the unconscious and dreams.
“It captures the terrifying paralyzed state of dreaming when one feels intensely threatened while experiencing a false sense of wakefulness yet unable to call out or move,” Behzadi says. “It’s that deep state of sleep when the body is actually paralyzed.”
Arash Behzadi’s audience is a global one. He has performed in Geneva, New York, the World Trade Centre Club in Dubai, the Tirgan Festival in Toronto and at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto attracting thousands of people from all over the world. Most notably, he has performed at the Bali Spirit Festival which brings together musicians, yogis and dancers from every continent, His most recent performance was in a remarkable vineyard overlooking Lake Ontario. He continues to explore a wide range of musical narratives in his current album With Closed Eyes, shaping his unique piano compositions into a distinct and very personal direction.
The “Existence” video, directed by Pedram Etemadi, juxtaposes human and insect, woman and butterfly. All creatures, human or insect, plant or animal, fight for existence. The video captures this struggle. The human and the insect are captive. They are free. Their state is ever changing – and interchangeable – captured by the haunting single notes climaxing in a chilling, life-ebbing end.
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Media Contact: Karina Cortez pr@arashbehzadi.com 416-900-4111
