Notes

‘Wilderness.’ The cover of Farshad Akbari’s new album, Echoes of Nothingness, shows a sand-bleached skull sitting on dunes of empty desert as far as the eye can see. In this track, you can hear echoes of soaring, symphonic synth artists of the 1970s and 80s, like Vangelis or even Tangerine Dream—but also more dissonant sounds that can be characteristic of Persian and Afghan compositions: Akbari was born and raised in Tehran, and now lives in Kabul. This is music to drift away to.

What is that dissonant sound in Middle-Eastern music?

—Brendan Hasenstab