Iranian musician Ava Rasti’s latest long-player for 130701 is concerned with the concept of “home”. Written following a trip to Tehran, to visit friends and family, and then a period, when due to war, she couldn’t  return, “No One Knows How Wild The Wind Blows” contains pieces inspired by themes / thoughts similar to some of those raised in Christopher Nolan’s recent reading of Homer’s “The Odyssey”. i.e. that once we leave, “home” no longer exists. Both person and place are changed irrevocably. Condemning us to a sort of exile. Where landscapes / locations can become familiar, without ever feeling like we belong.* The “wind” of the title represents the unpredictable, uncontrollable  forces that push us, pawn-like, around.

In the past, Rasti’s process has employed treated piano, bass guitar and deconstructed classical samples to create “orchestral textures” and “Eno-esque drones”. These new compositions also appear to adhere to this methodology. The title track seems to layer violin strings. Each singing the same song from a slightly different perspective. Creating a conversation as much as a chorus. The discourse painting pictures of stormy / churning seas. “The Wind Will Take Us Away” is a sad, melancholy shimmering, with words spoken just out of earshot, a symphony stirring in the distance and muted mandolin-like glissandos mapping the titular element’s movements. The scraping and bowing on “This Strange Life” summons falling rain. The fluttering of agitated birds.

The long sustained notes of “I Told The Mountain” ring, rich with resonance, as they repeat a cyclical riff. “Tehran” begins as a piano duet. One instrument simply keeping time, while the other attempts flight. Its solo stalling, unsure, finding its feet. Before a discordant buzzing climbs to dominate.

“I Told The Stones” introduces wonky, warped chimes, like a music box winding down, that wouldn’t be out of whack on a Boards Of Canada track. “After You Left” folds in field recordings, which start as a murmur, static, then grow louder, consuming everything. The effect is like thought being interrupted. Collapsing, perhaps.

The whole album is film soundtrack worthy, evocatively invoking the intended sense of sorrow and uncertainty, the closing “The Wind Passes By The Willow Tree”, however, is a highlight. A striking composition, that for me calls to mind Mica Levi’s award-winning “Under The Skin” score, it elegantly, romantically mixes a main melody of eerie, otherworldly, Sci-Fi timbres with a crashing like tempest surf washing an alien shore.

*I’ve been in Japan for 20 years, and, shit, trust me I know that feeling. Try to imagine how this might be amplified for refugees and asylum seekers. Rasti’s 130701 debut, “The River”, was concerned with related themes, of how history, both global and personal, continually reshapes our conception of a given space.

Ava Rasti’s “No One Knows How Wild The Wind Blows” can be ordered directly from FatCat / 130701.