siavash amini eugene thacker

1. Obsidian Sorrows (For Gérard de Nerval)
2. A Quiet Glow (For Chūya Nakahara)
3. Burnt Black Eyes (For Sadeq Hedayat)
4. Demented Skies (For Alejandra Pizarnik)
5. Smoldering Stars (For Giacomo Leopardi)
6. Opulent Night (For Mário de Sá-Carneiro)
7. A Shape Forlorn (For Zhu Shuzhen)
8. Prisms of Sleep (For Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo)

Composer and sound artist Siavash Amini collaborates with author Eugene Thacker on »Songs for Sad Poets.« The collection of eight pieces draws its inspiration from the legacy of the so-called cursed poets (»poètes maudits«) as well as the German-language tradition of song cycles and expands the structure of the classic art song through a process of lyric abstraction. Amini is no stranger to interdisciplinary collaboration, as seen in »A Mimesis of Nothingness,« his 2020 collaboration with photographer Nooshin Shafiee, also released through the Swiss Hallow Ground label. But whereas in Amini’s previous collaborations music and other media are set in dialogue, with »Songs for Sad Poets«, Thacker’s poems and Amini’s soundscapes are deeply enmeshed with each other. In fact, none of the words printed in the record’s booklet are being said out loud on this double LP, but rather made tangible through the use of sound. Poetry and music do not so much correspond with each other as they conspire together—as songs without words, words without song.