We are inspired and influenced by the sacred and folk music traditions of Bulgaria,The Balkans,The Mediterranean,The Middle East and Persia, as well as by the musical and spiritual heritage of Byzantium, Medieval and Renaissance Europe.
Several artists have also influence on our music: Dead Can Dance, Vas, L'Ham de Foc, Stellamara, Luis Delgado, Sarband, Radio Tarifa, Susan Deyhim, Angels of Venice, Axiom of Choice, Ross Daly, Eduardo Paniagua, Jordi Savall, Mercan Dede, Organum, Estampie, Loreena McKennitt, Sequentia...
"Seraphim" - the second album of Irfan is available in the music stores and for online purchase, if you want to order it click on the button:
To order the first album of Irfan click the button below:
To order the albums of Irfan in digital form (mp3 or wav format) please visit:
http://www.yozik.com/yo/boutique.php?groupe=1265&template=Prikos
Irfan is a Bulgarian Ethereal wave, World and Medieval music band. Its name is borrowed from the Sufi terminology and can be translated from Persian and Arabic as “gnosis”, “mystic knowledge” or “revelation”. Irfan’s music is an invitation for a mystical trip in and beyond time, a message, poetically extended in the language of the heart. World reviews are hesitant about the genre categorization of Irfan’s music, determining it as Neoclassical / World Music / Sacred Music / Ethereal Music / Heavenly voices. Indeed Irfan’s music is strongly influenced by the sacred and folk music traditions of Bulgaria, the Balkans, Persia, Caucasus, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as by the musical and spiritual heritage of Byzantium and Medieval Europe, yet it retains its own original sound. The musicians use traditional (Bulgarian, Balkan, Oriental, Persian, Indian) and medieval European instruments and vocal techniques from the same regions and historical periods, sometimes woven into a delicate, ambient electronic sound. Irfan is also known for its extensive use of ethereal and mystic female vocals in addition to strong male vocals and choirs in combination with an assortment of traditional and medieval string, wind and percussive instruments including the oud, saz, santoor, viola da gamba, tambura, duduk, nay, darbouka, daf, bendir, zarb and riq.
Irfan was founded in 2001 as a side project of musicians from Bulgarian bands like “Isihia”, “Kayno Yesno Slonce ”, “Om” and “Zarathustra”, but soon it became a new, independent and promising music team. The band was first signed by the French label “Prikosnovénie” and made its debut appearance on “Prikosnovénie”'s Fairy World compilation of various medieval and heavenly voices bands in 2003. “Prikosnovénie” declared the Bulgarians as the “discovery and revelation for 2004”. Ifran's debute (self-titled) album was also released in Europe that same year by "Prikosnovénie", and released in North America by “Noir Records” in 2005. In November 2007 Irfan released its second album ("Seraphim") for the French label “Prikosnovénie” simultaneously in Europe and in North America (through the US label “Noir Records”). Several compilations released during the past years include rare and unreleased songs by Irfan, which appeared along with tracks by artists like Loreena Mckennitt, Stellamara, Qntal and Estampie.
In 2008 Irfan created a soundtrack for the Bulgarian documentary “The Great Heresy” (dedicated to the history of the Medieval European heresies, especially those of the Bulgarian and Byzantine “Bogomils” and the Southern-French “Cathars”) released recently by the Bulgarian TV Channel bTV.
In 2009 the band released 3 songs for the soundtrack of the Bulgarian movie "Forecast".
Between 2006 and 2009 Irfan worked with another female vocalist - the Bulgarian traditional (folklore) singer Vladislava Vasileva (myspace.com/vladislavavlada
) who replaced Denitza Seraphimova and with whom the band performed live during this period.
Recently Irfan is working again with it's original singer Denitza Seraphimova with whom the band will perform during several concerts this summer.
From 2003 until now Irfan toured and performed live in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
how good to read Denitza finally came back to Irfan =) Hope to see you somewhere around in Germany (but not in such a grotty hangar as on the M'era Luna, you deserve a better ambiance;)).
And of course it would be a pleasure to hear a 3rd album of you in the near future =)
PS: Sorry if you've already received this... with over 20,000 friends, its kinda hard to keep track!!! Nevertheless we'll do our best to keep our friends informed :D
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Hey thanks for accepting our request, we hope you like our music. See you on a Gwydion show! Our merchandise is available for sale, to order send mail to: shop@gwydion.org or do it in our myspace.
Thank you all for the friendship here and for your wonderful music, which is really inspiring and stunning. I'm listening to Seraphim since i bought it one year ago and it gets even more better and better every time i hear it! Fantastic!
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