Jān-e Kharābāt

A Night of Afghan Music in Tehran
A Music Book-Album

Code: SDĀ.DG-2&3
Recording Date: January 2020
Publishing Date: April 2024
Curator: Ahmadali Kadivar
Vocals & Harmonium: Kabir Hamid Masoumi
Rubab: Alirezā Rubabi
Tabla: Gholamrezā Mohamadi
Rubab: Hamidrezā Mohamadi
Ethnography: Ahmad Jafari
Illustration: Golrokh Nafisi

The music book-album “Jan-e Kharābāt” is both a book and a music album from a night of Afghan music held in a house in Tehran in the winter of 2020. This spontaneous event, with no prior planning, followed its own internal and collective motives, giving the music album a fluid quality reminiscent of the stories from One Thousand and One Nights. Each moment of this approximately two-hour recording transitions into a new space, situation, and surprise. The preparation of the music album aimed to capture every sound from the night—the singer’s voice, instrument tuning, crowd noise, and excitement preserving the authenticity of the entire experience.

Accompanying the music album is a detailed text narrative explaining what transpired during the gathering, the motivations behind it, and how it ultimately became a music album. The music book album “Jan-e Kharābāt” is published as a 100-page bilingual pocket book, featuring a QR code for downloading the music album. Each book has a unique serial number for this purpose. These books are very elegantly designed and carefully hand-made and bound, showcasing a high level of craftsmanship and attention to detail.

This new product, which combines two different mediums, is the second product in continuation of the previous product of Sedākhāne, the musical poster, which was well received. Additionally, for analog enthusiasts, "Jan-e Kharābāt" is also available as a Music Cassette Book-Album in very limited editions. This version includes two 60-minute cassette tapes along with the booklet, which also contains a QR code for accessing the digital album.