Tapasya Loading · Live Podcast Taping
An Evening with Mahan Mirarab
Memory, migration, and the double-neck guitar
Join T.L. Mazumdar in the room as he records a conversation with the Iranian-Austrian guitarist and composer whose album Unspoken received the German Record Critics' Award.
Friday, 20 November 2026 · 16:00
Why this conversation
Finding a language of your own when you live between cultures
Mahan Mirarab grew up in Tehran and now lives in Vienna, and his music carries both places at once. Persian classical and folk traditions meet European chamber music, contemporary jazz, and improvisation in a way that feels personal rather than assembled.
Many of the artists I speak with carry more than one identity and wonder how to hold it all without diluting any part of it. Mahan has spent his career exploring that question in sound, and I suspect what he has learned will be useful to anyone whose creative life refuses to fit a single category.
“As a migrant in Europe, I bring strong influences from my cultural background. Through the philosophy of jazz, I find my own language, one that allows me to break free from traditional conventions.”
MAHAN MIRARAB
What we will explore
Three threads running through the evening
The conversation will move where it needs to, though these are the places I expect it to linger.
01
Jazz as a philosophy
For Mahan, jazz is a form of solidarity and a way of asserting identity. We will talk about what that means in practice for an artist building a life far from where he began.
02
Tradition held loosely
He reimagines Persian and European classical forms through rhythm, structure, and physical connection to sound. I want to understand how he honours a tradition while allowing it to change.
03
Making difficult music groove
“Even when the pieces are difficult to play, the focus is always on making them groove.” We will look at how complexity and accessibility can live inside the same piece of music.
About the guest
Mahan Mirarab
Guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer, Mahan has released nine albums as a bandleader since 2009. His latest, Unspoken, was released on ACT and features Kian Soltani on cello, Lars Danielsson on double bass, and Golnar Shahyar on vocals. It unfolds through stories of East and West, darkness and beauty, sorrow and joy.
His work spans jazz, experimental, acoustic and electronic music, as well as film, dance, and theatre. He has served as musical director and curator for the NAWA Festival in Vienna, Female Voices of Iran in Berlin, and Impossible Stage in Berkeley, California.
“One of the most distinctive voices between jazz, microtonality, and contemporary chamber music.”
Concerto / AT
“Poetic and powerful. Jazz album of the month.”
BR24 / DE
“Dreaming, breathing, agile pieces full of color.”
HR 2 / DE
Your host
T.L. Mazumdar
T.L. Mazumdar // aka EveryNowHere is a South-Asian-German musician, educator, and holistic coach based in Berlin, and the founder of the Holistic Musician Academy.
Tapasya Loading is the room where he sits down with fellow artists, authors, and thinkers to talk honestly about the inner and outer work of a creative life.
Friday, 20 November 2026 · 16:39
Join us in the room
Being present for a taping changes the conversation in small ways that are hard to name. Leave your details and I will send you everything you need to attend, along with a note when the episode is released.