The first album "Gulf Stream" is out now.
It contains 13 instrumental tracks, in a mostly electronic form. But overall it could be called as an Experimental one.
Here is the link for the album:

http://butterflyband.bandcamp.com/releases

A limited number of the album is distributed in Rasht and further in Tehran in on CD. You could check out the facebook link for more information:

https://www.facebook.com/butterflyband

And here is the live performance of participants in IranUK sonic residency.

http://sixpillars.org/2014/02/12/six-pillars-podcast-iran-uk-sonics-live-on-resonance104-4fm/

https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/six-pillars-live-iran-uk

Thanks to Fari Bradley and Resonance FM.

Check it out!

Yesterday (Dec 31th) the first session of the workshop went on. 9 of Rasht`s selected musicians and artists participated in it (There were others invited who couldn't make it for any reason). There were some discourses about the Improvisation sessions that we had in London and the performance itself. Also there were a lot of talks about the ideas and theories that are going on in the music, The avant-garde form of music, and the technics and forms in the contemporary music and for sure Sound art.

We also had some improvisations after the session which was completely different (fortunately) comparing to the ones we had before, based on the talks we had.

Also one of the major points of the session was the talks about the collaborating spirit and support in the musicians community that we have in here. There were a lot to talk about, Inspiring events and people and also the experiences that I had in London, and all of those helped us to start something new which could build some platform for the artists to present their artworks.

We even thought about starting a label, promoting it by social networks and other stuff in the future.

Today we had another one which was not as crowded as it was in yesterday. But considering that some of the people who are participating are not only musicians and are studying some philosophical issues beside their artistic activities, the discourses were so useful to build up a new perspective to the music and sound art so It will affect on the practical form of the music that we shall create in future.

There are gonna be some more workshops in the future so we could talk and practice more on technical issues. Here are some pictures of the first day of the workshop.

Also here is the links for the pages of some artists that participated in the session:

Mohammad Moosavi: https://www.facebook.com/mohammad.mousavi11

Milad Bagheri from the Name band:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/NAME-band/137431549664908

Amir Mirshahidi: https://www.facebook.com/amirmirshahidiofficial

So, On this post I will try to explain what went on in the rest of the days of residency.

On Wednesday morning I just met the other guys at LCC and got a package containing a Zoom Recorder and Its things. I just ran a test and after that each one of us just went to see the artist that Fari had arranged us to meet. I was supposed to see Simon King. He plays in the band Super Strings and some other side projects. Honestly I couldn't find any webpages related to him, Even though he is a GREAT artist and very known in UK. But here is a photo of him, maybe you could find some pages related to him: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37409944@N02/4634533311/ 

Even tough I was late for about 2 hours (lost in the city looking for the address) He accepted me with a very warm welcome. Considering my late arrival we didn't have much time to talk and play, So It was a quick meeting. He just talked about their rehearsals and how they used to create music in their different projects.
His type of music was kinda something that one could never heard. unique and post-structural. I did enjoy it very much and honestly I think these kind of musics should and should be heard and be talked about more.
He walked with me to the station on the way back and we talked about how things were in the past and nowadays are. which ppl maybe cared more before than now. He was very optimistic about the future, the future that in it decent musics (I am defining a kind of music as a decent one and I know it, I will explain about it later) would be heard much more and will be cared. I hope such thing happen.
I just couldn't catch the train soon enough and I was late for the evening workshop with Ehsan Ziya wich it was about Abelton and Max4Live. I just missed the Max part but Abelton thing was about producing some visualizations, related to the sounds playing. It was cool. Those technics might come handy sometimes.
After that we just went to ResonanceFM radio station. We were the group, Fari Bradley and Chris weaver.
Fari just arranged us to improvise online on her show, Six Pillars to Persia which was a great and brand new experience for all of us. Chris helped us all to get ready and did the soundcheck things. It was really exciting. The show started and after Fari`s announcement and some words from Keith Rowe we started the improvise. I guess It was OK :) Nasim was on Violon, Sid Was on Laptop, Nima was on Piano, Laptop and Mic, Niloufar was on Laptop and I was on laptop and Mic. I hope the audience enjoyed the performance.
On Friday morning we had a session with Michael Kasparis which runs the label: Night School Records http://nightschoolrecords.com/ and is the digital manager and Rough Trade Records.
It was about starting ones own international internet label. The were some explanations about how to start and distribute the music and making some profit of it to develop the label itself. He was a very decent man with a very helping attitude and he had just some papers ready for us which in them there were some headlines about how to start a new independent label and.. Sure I will talk about it more in the workshop and in the future here in the weblog. He also mailed us all and encouraged everyone to do the things we've talked about in the session.
In the evening we met Chris Watson. World renowned field recordist http://www.chriswatson.net/ .
He is a great artist in this field. He talked about different kind and ways of recordings and about their details, considering Dynamic Range and... After that we just took our packages containing the recorder and... and went to a park close to ual. We started recording. each one separated and recorded the sounds they were interested in. One of the things that looked interesting was the perspective he had about the sounds. The way and kind of the sounds he were recording. Even the natural or manipulated kind of sounds. There will be some posts considering the details of what I've just said.
Anyway we just came back and listened to some of the sounds and talked a bit more and after that went to the place that Fari had booked for the goodbye party.
It was very pleasant for me. 3 guys from LCC joined us too. There was a Funky live performance dawn stairs of that place and It was fine. I enjoyed the performance a lot. Plus there were some talks about me performing with them which I didn't. Cause I've never played or covered any funky thing in my whole music career. But all of a sudden Nemo went on stage and covered 2 songs with them which really cheered up the audience and was awesome :D I will put the links in the case I find them anywhere so u could see that. Tommo (The photographer and Filmmaker of the residency) also showed up and gave us some cute presents. Cool guy indeed. We did went to another place (as the first foreigner participants who may enter that place), heard different type of musics alive (Jazz, Electronica and...) and did some dancing and stuff. It was so exciting and super fun. Great last night together, Thanks to Fari arranging all those plans.
And the last day. We were kinda free. I just went to Tate Modern Museum. Fascinating indeed.
And as usual the shopping, souvenirs and late at night Nemo, Niloufar and I had our last Beer in a public pub in front of our hotel. That was fun :D
Overall I gotta say these 2 weeks were just amazing. A great and such brand new experience for all of us. Every workshop sessions, live performances, the people we met and the other stuff. Thanks to Fari Bradley https://sixpillars.org / https://twitter.com/6Pillars who planned and managed the whole thing which was a big deal itself and the others who supported this residency and made this happen.
There would be more posts about the details of the workshop sessions. So look forward to them!

The second week of the residency. On monday we met Iris Garrelfs http://irisgarrelfs.com
At this session we started to work on and shape some several audio files and to find the opportunities that may happen during the process of forming sounds and use them. It's not like what you listen in your head and you make it practical. It's about what happens during this process which inspires and impresses you so you may form a completely new sound than what was in your head.
The software we were working with was Audacity which is free and everyone could download it. In the start the limitations and the basic form of the software may be unpleasant. But after a while this limitations may let you hear some new sounds you make. I know it may be a bit difficult to understand but try it and you will see. just keep workin and you will have a completely different sound than what you used to have before in the end. At the end Iris mixed all of our 5 projects and this is it:
https://soundcloud.com/iris-garrelfs/six-pillars Thank to her.
In the evening we met Chris Weaver https://twitter.com/cjohnweaver which runs the radio channel Resonance FM http://resonancefm.com which is a radio channel that broadcasts back the Experimental and kinda more avant guard form of the musics and has a great role in distributing this kind of music. It did support the residency too. Chris just told us how to make a noise device. It was just like crazy. We all built some devices which had 3 to 6 knobs to be controlled and could make a wide range of noises controlling the nobs! There was some map and some electronical stuff and we all build them up with his guidance. I just asked him and This device could be more complicated and could make much more noises. You just gotta keep digging it. I will try to find the info and map in details and post them on the blog.
After that we just went to Resonance FM christmas party which was SUPER FUN! Free drinks and many lovely people who we met and talk. Even we just met many guys from the Vortex. Such an exciting night it was.

On tues 17th we had a session with Tamina Mir http://www.linkedin.com/in/taminam About social networking. She just talked about several networks which one could introduce him or herself through them. Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, LinkedIn and even a website to control them all together which was very handy: Hootsuite.com
This session could be very useful indeed. Cause if one wants to be heard social networking is one of the best ways.
After that in the evening we met Ehsan Ziyaeddiny who is kinda expert in many musical software like Abelton and Max and... He talked about some randomization in music and the thing that many time the computer could do this hard job automatically for us. Actually the software which were used in the session was Abelton and he thought us how to work with several of its options and randomize the Drums and LFOs and... It was quite useful.
Later in the night we went to Cafe Oto http://twitter.com/cafeoto where John Tilbury did one of Samuel Beckett`s. He just read it and played it on piano. Amazing! After that he played another piece of music on piano which really impressed me. Honestly I liked it more than the first part. I sometime could guess what's coming on and It was just like I was floating in the music. Fantastic.

On wed 18th In the morning we had a session with Doug Shearer who is a known mastering expert and had worked with (Kasabian, Gorillaz and Jamelia). It was the thing that many musicians in Iran were seeking for. I did note every word so I could tell my fellows in the workshops how to do this. We worked with logic and some of Its own plugins. The interesting thing is in the software part of the mastering, in Iran we have everything and there is no lack of the softwares (Despite the analog hardwares which have a huge difference and are so expensive). He used many of the softwares that I or my fellows used to use before in Iran which was really surprising for me. Thought he just did some great explanations about the sound and how to control and make it better which was really professional and helpful. I really enjoyed this class.
Ok, In the end I gotta say that there are so many things to talk about. So there is gonna be more posts. I just don't wanna make this one too long and boring. Look forward for the upcoming ones!

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Here I am, 1 week after residency. First of all the performance was AWESOME! everything just went all right. All the LCC students and my Iranian fellow did great and... absolutely Veryan Weston was amazing. He conducted us and played piano, That was just great playing slong him and being on stage with him. Also we had a hilarious scene involved Fari and Veryan which you could check Its video in this page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1401254320113367/
Also the page contains the pictures and info of the performance.
I gotta say that this all was impossible without the efforts of Fari Bradley, LCC, Southbank Centre and all who supported this residency. All this is so much appreciated.
After the performance we had 2 days off. In saturday we just went to a contemporary dance performance which was fabulous. It contained 2 performance and 1 video projection part and after that some people started to play some songs and singing which we didn't see them all and left. It was about the Choreography and Dance and the line between them. the Ideas represented out there were so innovative and interesting.
Also tonight we just went to a Jazz club called "Vortex". I gotta tell you It really impressed me. The musicians were kinda expert and so so creative. Their performances was kinda crazy, full of new ideas and I was just like, Yeaaaah! Finally some decent and innovative music even in acoustic form.
Tomorrow is the start of the second week of the workshop. So much is coming right on, So look forward to the future posts.

Allright, First of all I gotta admit that these 3 days in London were actually so exciting and also so busy that I couldn't post anything. Thanks to Fari Bradely (http://sixpillars.org), LCC, Southbank Centre and all the others who made this happen.

During these 3 days we have done a lot of things. Rehearsals, lots of improvisation, going to a concert and also plenty other stuff that I can't talk about them, Cause It will take a lot of time and words.

We had Keith Rowe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Rowe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75b2QunSb4A (Preview)http://www.discogs.com/artist/Keith+Rowe) coaching us, and I gotta admit that he is a really great artist. The way he looks at the artwork and the philosophy behind it is really magnificent. He just coached us through our improvisations and inspired everyone with his ideas and... Personally I think he is one of the few artists that does thinks and acts way ahead of his living period.

Today we had the chance to continue our rehearsals with Veryan Weston (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMSjXtrdRbY (Preview)http://www.discogs.com/artist/Veryan+Weston

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jul/26/watts-weston-dialogues-places-review
http://www.somethinelse.com/content/jazz-on-3-this-week-18/). Actually he is a really great artist with a very warm attitude and great ideas of course. He just told us about the Graphic Scores (http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/music/powerpoint/graphic_scores.ppt) and cunducting.

He just thought us how to read one and conducted us to play it. He also played a part of piano with us through a 10 minute improvisation which was really awesome.

Soon I will try to write technically what was going on in the rehearsal sessions. The ideas that were talked about and the act of improvisation itself.

Also last night Fari Bradley took us to Sinead O'Connor's concert which were kinda great. I don't wanna get into details about it, But overall it was just great. By the way she got a history that I think it could be really interesting for you. So just google her and read and watch her.

Overall there are a lot of things to mention about these 3 days which I couldn't find the chance to write about them more. But I gotta mention that Fari Bradley were always out there for us which is really appreciated by all of us.

Soon I will post some more post and talk about new events and explain more about all the rehearsals and the live performance. Wish us luck!