LIRAZ - Forced Exposure

$20.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 5/17/2024

Singer, actress and cultural conduit for peace, Liraz releases a new collection of four songs, primed with an intensity and a raw musical revolt, energizing the Middle Eastern musical landscape, sung in Farsi and driven by her deep desire for positive energy and much needed global harmony and light. Co-written and recorded with Uri Brauner Kinrot (Ouzo Bazooka and Boom Pam).

$15.50 IN STOCK

The new third album from award-winning Israeli-Persian singer Liraz is an invitation to dream. Anthems, love ballads, glittery Middle Eastern dance tunes -- a collection of 11 tracks that enrich that signature blend of tradi-modern rhythms and retro-Persian sonics. Liraz and her Israeli sextet (three women, three men) recorded Roya over ten days in Istanbul, in a basement studio hidden from public view and crackling with creativity. With them, on violin, viola and the tar, the wasp-waisted wooden Iranian lute, were composers and musicians from the Iranian capital, Tehran. The same clutch of anonymous players who previously collaborated with Liraz online, under the radar of Tehran's secret police, for her feted 2020 album, Zan (GB 101CD/LP, 2020). Players who'd travelled undercover from Tehran to Istanbul to work with Liraz and producer/multi-instrumentalist Uri Brauner Kinrot in the flesh. Featuring music written by bassist Amir Sadot, "Doone Doone" is a rollicking ode to the Tehrani musicians Liraz befriended through computer screens. "Mimiram" delivers dramatic protestations of love with knowing irreverence; while "Omid" -- with lyrics by an anonymous Iranian female musician and music by Zan co-writer Ilan Smilan -- tells of a man named Hope and of hope, who is also a man. A slow, lonely song about Iran, the string-and-synth-driven "Tanha" was recorded on the day the Iranians may or may not have arrived in Istanbul. Her Hebrew accent intact, her confidence boosted by prestigious awards (Songlines Artist of the Year 2021) and widespread international acclaim, Liraz has never sounded so passionate, so strong and defiant. Roya, then, is the next phase of a high-profile career further distinguished by a drive to fight oppression, to champion the right of women everywhere to sing, perform and be heard. Liraz grew up dancing to the music of divas such as Ramesh and Googoosh celebrated in Tehran in the '60s and '70s, the golden age of Persian pop. She also loved female singer-songwriters: Kate Bush, Tori Amos. Lessons in singing, music and acting -- and a stint spent clubbing - were followed by three years working in the US as an actress, appearing in the big budget films such as Fair Game and A Late Quartet. Liraz also appeared as a Farsi-speaking Mossad operative in the 2020 Apple TV espionage series Tehran. In Tehrangeles -- the Little Tehran of Los Angeles -- she found her people, embraced her inner Persian. With each album, Liraz has grown bolder, more outspoken (ask her about Palestine and she'll extol Palestinian rights, too). Recorded in secrecy in Istanbul with her band from Tel Aviv and risk-defying Iranian musicians from Tehran. A musical portal to a place of peace, joy and unfettered freedom.

$24.00 IN STOCK

LP version. The new third album from award-winning Israeli-Persian singer Liraz is an invitation to dream. Anthems, love ballads, glittery Middle Eastern dance tunes -- a collection of 11 tracks that enrich that signature blend of tradi-modern rhythms and retro-Persian sonics. Liraz and her Israeli sextet (three women, three men) recorded Roya over ten days in Istanbul, in a basement studio hidden from public view and crackling with creativity. With them, on violin, viola and the tar, the wasp-waisted wooden Iranian lute, were composers and musicians from the Iranian capital, Tehran. The same clutch of anonymous players who previously collaborated with Liraz online, under the radar of Tehran's secret police, for her feted 2020 album, Zan (GB 101CD/LP, 2020). Players who'd travelled undercover from Tehran to Istanbul to work with Liraz and producer/multi-instrumentalist Uri Brauner Kinrot in the flesh. Featuring music written by bassist Amir Sadot, "Doone Doone" is a rollicking ode to the Tehrani musicians Liraz befriended through computer screens. "Mimiram" delivers dramatic protestations of love with knowing irreverence; while "Omid" -- with lyrics by an anonymous Iranian female musician and music by Zan co-writer Ilan Smilan -- tells of a man named Hope and of hope, who is also a man. A slow, lonely song about Iran, the string-and-synth-driven "Tanha" was recorded on the day the Iranians may or may not have arrived in Istanbul. Her Hebrew accent intact, her confidence boosted by prestigious awards (Songlines Artist of the Year 2021) and widespread international acclaim, Liraz has never sounded so passionate, so strong and defiant. Roya, then, is the next phase of a high-profile career further distinguished by a drive to fight oppression, to champion the right of women everywhere to sing, perform and be heard. Liraz grew up dancing to the music of divas such as Ramesh and Googoosh celebrated in Tehran in the '60s and '70s, the golden age of Persian pop. She also loved female singer-songwriters: Kate Bush, Tori Amos. Lessons in singing, music and acting -- and a stint spent clubbing - were followed by three years working in the US as an actress, appearing in the big budget films such as Fair Game and A Late Quartet. Liraz also appeared as a Farsi-speaking Mossad operative in the 2020 Apple TV espionage series Tehran. In Tehrangeles -- the Little Tehran of Los Angeles -- she found her people, embraced her inner Persian. With each album, Liraz has grown bolder, more outspoken (ask her about Palestine and she'll extol Palestinian rights, too). Recorded in secrecy in Istanbul with her band from Tel Aviv and risk-defying Iranian musicians from Tehran. A musical portal to a place of peace, joy and unfettered freedom.

$15.50 IN STOCK

Liraz, the highly touted Israeli-Persian singer, returns with a buoyant and border-busting new album. Shimmering electro-pop meets pulsing dance rhythms and retro Persian sonics. Includes clandestine collaborations with Iran-based musicians and composers. For her second album, Zan ("Women" in Farsi), the Israeli- Persian singer collaborated online with composers and musicians from Iran. Everything had to be secretive to avoid the gaze of Tehran's mullahs and secret police. The result is her private revolution, songs with a true message, music to make people dance and smile -- and above all, think. The songs on Zan are the fulfilment of a dream, taking Liraz deep into the soul of the country that fills her heart and populated the stories her parents told her as a child -- but one she's never seen. Her family, Iranian Jews, moved to Tel Aviv in the 1970s. Yet although Liraz was raised in Israel, she's always believed that "my culture is Iranian." The real revelation came when she moved to the US for three years to work as an actress, appearing in several big-budget movies, including A Late Quartet and Fair Game. In Los Angeles she found a huge Iranian community. When making Naz (2018), she wrote and sang in Farsi, the music at times exploring the sounds of pre-revolution Iranian pop music. On Zan, she worked with Iranian musicians, some anonymously, and let her voice and her music resonate further. One of those anonymous players, a female percussionist based in Tehran, features on the opening track, "Zan Bezan," (in English "Women, Sing") alongside Liraz's Israeli band. It's an insistent, catchy piece of electro-pop with heavy musical nods to Iranian pop stars of the 1970s like Googoosh; the message of female empowerment, however, is absolutely contemporary. Another secret Iranian collaborator worked on the powerful earworm that's "Joon Joon," where the dance beats erupt straight from a 1970s Tehran disco, while the big chorus implants itself in the brain and refuses to leave. Zan is an album of contrasts, like "Shab Gerye," the ballad that Liraz knew she needed to include "because the words and music fit so perfectly. It's a love song about reality," or the aching closer, "Lalai." The album continues breaking the walls her mother and aunts began to dismantle. But it does much more: it burrows under borders. It connects countries and cultures. Zan, Liraz insists, is the second chapter of the story that began with Naz. But it's also one that stands alone.

$23.50 IN STOCK

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download code. Liraz, the highly touted Israeli-Persian singer, returns with a buoyant and border-busting new album. Shimmering electro-pop meets pulsing dance rhythms and retro Persian sonics. Includes clandestine collaborations with Iran-based musicians and composers. For her second album, Zan ("Women" in Farsi), the Israeli- Persian singer collaborated online with composers and musicians from Iran. Everything had to be secretive to avoid the gaze of Tehran's mullahs and secret police. The result is her private revolution, songs with a true message, music to make people dance and smile -- and above all, think. The songs on Zan are the fulfilment of a dream, taking Liraz deep into the soul of the country that fills her heart and populated the stories her parents told her as a child -- but one she's never seen. Her family, Iranian Jews, moved to Tel Aviv in the 1970s. Yet although Liraz was raised in Israel, she's always believed that "my culture is Iranian." The real revelation came when she moved to the US for three years to work as an actress, appearing in several big-budget movies, including A Late Quartet and Fair Game. In Los Angeles she found a huge Iranian community. When making Naz (2018), she wrote and sang in Farsi, the music at times exploring the sounds of pre-revolution Iranian pop music. On Zan, she worked with Iranian musicians, some anonymously, and let her voice and her music resonate further. One of those anonymous players, a female percussionist based in Tehran, features on the opening track, "Zan Bezan," (in English "Women, Sing") alongside Liraz's Israeli band. It's an insistent, catchy piece of electro-pop with heavy musical nods to Iranian pop stars of the 1970s like Googoosh; the message of female empowerment, however, is absolutely contemporary. Another secret Iranian collaborator worked on the powerful earworm that's "Joon Joon," where the dance beats erupt straight from a 1970s Tehran disco, while the big chorus implants itself in the brain and refuses to leave. Zan is an album of contrasts, like "Shab Gerye," the ballad that Liraz knew she needed to include "because the words and music fit so perfectly. It's a love song about reality," or the aching closer, "Lalai." The album continues breaking the walls her mother and aunts began to dismantle. But it does much more: it burrows under borders. It connects countries and cultures. Zan, Liraz insists, is the second chapter of the story that began with Naz. But it's also one that stands alone.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Sidestepping between Iran and Israel, singer and film star Liraz drops her new album, playing with past and present, where the role of women in society takes center stage. Taking cues from Iran's fiery and defiant female musical icons like Googoosh and Ramesh, Liraz's debut album Naz reimagines their fighting spirit from the '70s. She sings in Farsi and the influences from those Persian forebears, and Israeli producer Rejoicer provides the bounce of hip-hop and electronica. Raised in Tel Aviv in Israel, her parents are from Iran yet political circumstances have meant that she's never been able to visit. She has a successful career as an actor in both Israel and Hollywood, acting with the likes of Philip Seymour-Hoffman (A Late Quartet) and Naomi Watts (Fair Game), and has spent the past decade whilst on film set location, picking up Iranian music. Liraz's music has made her a beacon for a nascent movement around women's rights -- inside Iran and out. It was LA, around 2008, when she first heard music in a mold that pricked her preconceptions about the role of women in her parents' home country. It was in Googoosh's music that she first saw a public image of a female Iranian swaggering with confidence. In "Nozi Nozi", she prods at the idea of "noz". It alludes to an Iranian archetype of a sweetly-smiling wife, subtly trying to wrest what she wants out of her husband. The music itself flips the cultural reference points at its core too: a repeated, Persian string refrain, building up intensity in tandem with Liraz's vocals, is put in fresh light by a spartan, swaggering beat. A key part of her music has been bringing the influence of her forebears in line with a contemporary perspective. It's been ten years since her interest in Iranian music was first sparked as her travels gave space for her to hunt for musical discoveries. Several of the tracks are covers of Iranian artists, like "Hala Bavar" which is a version of one of Googoosh's songs. It has been meeting her producer Rejoicer, also based in Tel Aviv, which has helped bring the Naz project to life. Playing him the artists which were her reference points, and guiding him through Iran's gamut of traditional instruments, the chemistry between them was immediately obvious: it's made for the hypnotic, heavy-weighted style that gives her tracks a powerful directness.

$23.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Sidestepping between Iran and Israel, singer and film star Liraz drops her new album, playing with past and present, where the role of women in society takes center stage. Taking cues from Iran's fiery and defiant female musical icons like Googoosh and Ramesh, Liraz's debut album Naz reimagines their fighting spirit from the '70s. She sings in Farsi and the influences from those Persian forebears, and Israeli producer Rejoicer provides the bounce of hip-hop and electronica. Raised in Tel Aviv in Israel, her parents are from Iran yet political circumstances have meant that she's never been able to visit. She has a successful career as an actor in both Israel and Hollywood, acting with the likes of Philip Seymour-Hoffman (A Late Quartet) and Naomi Watts (Fair Game), and has spent the past decade whilst on film set location, picking up Iranian music. Liraz's music has made her a beacon for a nascent movement around women's rights -- inside Iran and out. It was LA, around 2008, when she first heard music in a mold that pricked her preconceptions about the role of women in her parents' home country. It was in Googoosh's music that she first saw a public image of a female Iranian swaggering with confidence. In "Nozi Nozi", she prods at the idea of "noz". It alludes to an Iranian archetype of a sweetly-smiling wife, subtly trying to wrest what she wants out of her husband. The music itself flips the cultural reference points at its core too: a repeated, Persian string refrain, building up intensity in tandem with Liraz's vocals, is put in fresh light by a spartan, swaggering beat. A key part of her music has been bringing the influence of her forebears in line with a contemporary perspective. It's been ten years since her interest in Iranian music was first sparked as her travels gave space for her to hunt for musical discoveries. Several of the tracks are covers of Iranian artists, like "Hala Bavar" which is a version of one of Googoosh's songs. It has been meeting her producer Rejoicer, also based in Tel Aviv, which has helped bring the Naz project to life. Playing him the artists which were her reference points, and guiding him through Iran's gamut of traditional instruments, the chemistry between them was immediately obvious: it's made for the hypnotic, heavy-weighted style that gives her tracks a powerful directness.