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"Afro-Persian Electro-Dub"

San Francisco, California

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Influences: Waaberi, Susana Baca, Ali Hassan Kuban, Ornette Coleman, Clara Nunes, Fela Kuti, Boubacar Traore, Coltrane, Tribilistas, Warda, Khaled, Zap Mama, Burning Spear, Lauren Hill, Jamalski, Carmen McRae, Mariem Hassan, Tribe Called Quest, Ellington, Orishas, Gotan Project, Lenine, Parliament, Public Enemy, Sima Bina, Stevie Wonder, Beatles, Sun Ra, Hendrix, James Brown, Carlos Arroyo, Mulatu Astatqe, The Wailers, Lazaro Ros

Genre: World Electronic Fusion

Record Label: Six Degrees Records - Emerging Artists
Label Type: Indie
Listing info: myspace.com/zaman8music

ZAMAN 8 was founded in San Francisco, by guitarist Dan Newman and vocal-artista Sanaz Ebriani, with a mission to create an energetic and original sound influenced by an array of international genres. The sonic journey travels across a vast soundscape including Middle Eastern phrasings, Afro-Beat polyrhythmics, Brazilian and blues melodics resulting in an integrated world electronic aesthetic. Zaman (za-maan) in Farsi and Arabic means time, duration, age or era. The number 8 flipped to its side is the infinity sign. The name resonates deep with our desire to create music that will connect you to the past, present and future.

Our debut album Suryaghati (Sundial in Sanskrit), featuring Iranian-American Jazz Saxophonist Hafez Modir, is an ever cosmic merging of sounds at the crossroads of Afro-Persia, jazz, hip hop, and dub-electronica. The album has been released as 2 separate EPs by Six Degrees Records (both are out now).

A call to the ancient intergalactic symmetries of India, Iran and African diaspora, Suryaghati is our collaboration with the innovative, Iranian world-jazz saxophonist Hafez Modir.

About Hafez Modir: Hafez' horn playing is deeply rooted in the legacy of African-American musical traditions, yet is also compelled by his Persian heritage. Hafez creates melodies that adapt Middle Eastern and African-American sources into an intelligent and most original melodic conception. His invention of the "chromodal" method allows for a nonlinear improvisational practice that is able to adapt to and incorporate multiple systems of music, permitting a cross-cultural "conversation." For more information on Hafez and his music please check out www.hafezmodir.com.

About Suryaghati: What separates Suryaghati from other forgettable discs in the too-cluttered bin of "worldtronica" is Zaman 8's passion to create originality and permanence from the building block-influences of distinct roots music styles: Afro-Persian, Afrobeat, underground hip-hop breakbeats, drum n' bass, Afro-Brazilian percussion, Gnawa, South-Asian, Afro-Cuban, Andalucian. The clear and potent result is never secondary or subservient to a hastily applied electronic beat. Like Sun Ra's saxophones blasting the cosmic wisdom of ancient Egypt into the ears of contemporary Western consciousness, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things, Suryaghati brings the past into the future and the future into the past.

ZAMAN 8 Mission: We seek to pioneer a new, vital sound - a groove with the intensity of underground hip hop, the lyrical and improvisational power of modern jazz, and the harmonic and polyrhythmic resonance of international roots music styles. With a love for the root essence of traditions and a refusal to compromise or water down, ZAMAN 8 looks beyond the beats and loops and finds original and lasting compositional and melodic elements that form a compelling and deliberate narrative structure.

Click here for your free downloadable track of "Sani"!



Suryaghati EP 2 has been digitally released and is available for purchase. Look for it on iTunes, Emusic, Rhapsody, URGE and other online stores.
Buy our tracks directly from the Six Degrees Records store (More % to Artist):



Suryaghati EP 1 has been digitally released and is available for purchase. Look for it on iTunes, Emusic, Rhapsody, URGE and other online stores.
Buy our tracks directly from the Six Degrees Records store (More % to Artist):



Listen to tracks from Suryaghati EP 1





ZAMAN 8 Dub Tees



ZAMAN 8 Band Tees

What others have to say about ZAMAN 8
Pop Matters Review of EP2
As commodifiable notions of a global village give way to new conceptions of the world as a planet, duos such as Zaman 8 collaborate with other artists to create what they call “interplanetary conversations”. You will find no pandering to rigid codifications of world music here, but rather, an original and highly innovative musical expression of international cooperation. Zaman 8 consists of native San Franciscan and multi-instrumentalist Dan Newman and vocalist Sanaz Ebriani, who identifies as part of the Iranian diaspora in the United States. With jazz saxophonist Hafez Modir, they are helping to cultivate a world electronic aesthetic that conveys the character and significance of diverse musical traditions ranging from the Andalucian to underground hip-hop.
The second half of Zaman 8 and Hafez Modir’s digital album Suryaghati ("sundial" in Sanskrit) deftly combines jazz with Afro-Brazilian percussion, Afrobeat, Afro-Persian, Gnawa and South-Asian musical influences to narrate the inescapable similarities and variations between and among different forms of indigenous roots music. The result is an electronic fusion capable of moving world music beyond a global market of culturally othered goods and toward the cultivation of a planet open to a wide variety of sounds. As difficult to place as it is to sit still while listening to it, EP 2 speaks volumes about the new mobilities generated by the dispersion of peoples throughout the world. Newman’s and Ebriani’s chosen name already evokes the ways in which they bring together past, present and future expressions. “Zaman” means “time” in Farsi and Arabic, and the number 8 is a sign for infinity.
Suryaghati EP 2‘s tracks poetically propel the story forward while never losing sight of where it has been. Though Zaman 8 and Hafez Modir’s eclectic version of the global crossroads remains susceptible to the negative effects of globalization, their disc reminds us of the necessarily hybrid articulations of the diaspora. EP 2 might disappoint those looking for aesthetically pleasing souvenirs, but its groovy yet sedate mix of diverse, international styles is bound to please the “planeterized” listener. original post

17dots.com Review of EP2
ZAMAN 8 - It's a Wonderful World Too
"As an avid, yet picky, modern world music follower, sixdegrees records gets my attention from time to time (and they rarely disappoint). Zaman 8 is an emerging artist on sixdegrees. They have my FULL attention right now.
The recently released album, Suryaghat EP 2, is outstanding. It is beautifully arranged, performed, and recorded. It feels very modern and natural. The music pulls from many ethnic styles but you also feel the more recent influences of Hip Hop, Jazz, and other urban/groove based styles.
One song in particular that I'm looping non stop is ..Mangala... It brings you in with reversed tabla responding to an ever growing layer of drum kit beats and a solid bass melody. Then comes in a very hooky and sparse sax line, changing bass lines and more beat exchanges. It ends with a complete story and doesn..t waste your brain on an endless ..worldy music jam..." original post

All About Jazz Review by Chris M. Slawecki
"Another Six Degrees Emerging Artist based in San Francisco, the Zaman8 duo of Sanaz Ebrian[i] and Dan Newman (each contributing programming and production skills, plus Ebrian[i] on vocals and Newman on guitars) also seem to examine Middle Eastern and electronic music in mutual contexts.
Newman's father was a part-time musician and part-time film producer who produced the extraordinary, extraterrestrial Sun Ra biopic Space is the Place. ..We do have strong influences coming from jazz, in particular the exploratory power of improvisation, which we..re all deeply invested in,.. Dan says. ..We want our music to have that intensity of a great solo.
Adding saxophone and flute by Iranian-American instrumentalist Hafez Modir makes the melodies on Suryaghati sound somehow more personally communicative, Modir..s wailing sax passages somehow more like jazz - the tense past future sound of Pharoah and ..Trane contemplating deep outer-space except with no type of accompaniment that Sanders or Coltrane could ever hear or see.
Ketu.. opens with a strong flute melody line (on Sufi ney flute) that stretches and doubles back upon itself as the remaining music, including the quaint yet exotic sound of African thumb piano, swims underneath in liquid watercolor. Modir..s soprano in ..Sukra.. and the cavernous dub-style ..Sani.. moans and dances in sweet pained tones that would suggest Grover Washington Jr. or other soulful R&B saxophonists if presented in such a setting."original post

Midwest Record EP2 Review:
"ZAMAN 8/Suryaghati ep 2: Multiculti world beat duo comes back with what otherwise would be the second half of an album if physical product was available. A wonderful set of genre hopping mixmastering that goes all the way around the world and back in a few tracks, sometimes within a track. Hard to pin down, this musical shapeshifter is a real Gasser for forward thinking world beat ears."

SoundsRoots Blog Review:
"Six Degrees Records has a track record of ambitious thinking and modern sensibilities. Among the artists they've shone a spotlight on are some enduring favorites: Bobi Cespedes, Issa Bagayogo, Cheb i Sabbah, Ojos de Brujo, and Trio Mocot... Yes, there's a pattern to these artists: they all combine traditional roots with elements of electronic or dance music.
Not only does Zaman 8 do that, but their newest tunes are part of a new digital-only strategy by Six Degrees. Yup, no physical CD to clutter up your place. Just those wee ones and zeros on your whateverPod, arranged in tasty order to bring you this sparse but satisfying musical blend. ...I like the subtle rhythms and bass that underlie the floating sax and flute lines. Think Mercan Dede in a jazz club." soundRoots website

Properly Chilled Review by Founder Brandon:
"Six Degrees recently released one of ZAMAN 8's songs on its Emerging Artists series, digital-only compilations. Their track, produced along with talented saxophonist Hafez Modir was one that caught my ear most clearly. It was such an unexpected fusion of jazz instrumentation with Middle Eastern and South Asian sounds that it's almost hard not to think this is the future of near Eastern jazz." more...

SF Chronicle Pop Beat Pic by Bill Picture:
"San Francisco's Six Degrees Records is giving Pop Beat readers first dibs at a free download from local world-tronic artists ZAMAN 8 and Hafez Modir's "Suryaghati" EP. For the song "Sani," the collaborators combine solid dub grooves with exotic African, Indian and Pakistani flourishes. The resulting blend is too bounce-inducing to be called "chill" and deserves a hit off the hookah and a slow grind on the dance floor with someone you lust after." more...

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