"I know neither cruelty nor mercy, I only carry out my plan."
Hassan-i Sabbah
RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra
Conductor.
Tehran Mixed Choir Human Voice Ensemble
Gallina Vocal Group
Otto Lechner, organ
Accordion Orchestra
Alamut is an original symphonic work by Laibach, which deals with the famous and historically based story of Persia in the 11th century, as described by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol in his book. The central character is the heretic Hassan ibn Saba (Hassan-i Sabbah), the charismatic religious and political leader of the Ishmaelites and the founder of the mysterious Islamic sect of the Assassins (or Hash'shashin), whose name is still pronounced with awe today. In the novel, the self-proclaimed prophet Hassan ibn Saba, supposedly sent from Allah, wages a holy war against the Persian Empire, then ruled by the Seljuk Turks, from behind the battlements of his eagle's nest - the castle of Alamut, in the Iranian province of Qazvin, not far from Tehran. With a small band of Spartan-trained followers, he faces a much more powerful enemy. In return for the loyalty of his soldiers, the Fedayeen, he offers them more than ordinary mortals could ever taste; with a key supposedly entrusted to him by Allah himself, he unlocks the gates of the afterlife, paradise as described in the Koran. Once they have tasted this paradise, the fedayeen are prepared to do literally anything for ibn Saba so that they can return to it as soon as possible.
In Laibach's Alamut, the ideas of radical political and religious nihilism are intertwined with the classical Persian poetry of Omar Khayyam, the sensuous verses of the poet Mahsati Ganjavi are fused with minimalist sound colours based on the Iranian tradition, and ibn Saba's infernal mechanism is echoed in the orchestra's industrial principle of operation and Laibach's unique sound.
Laibach created the project with the support of the English non-profit organisation a/political and in collaboration with Iranian composers and other collaborators. Individual parts of the composition were contributed by Idin Samimi Mofakham and Nima Atrkar Rowshan, Iranian conductor Navid Gohari conducts the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and Tehran's mixed choir Human Voice Ensemble is among the performers. In addition to the above, the Gallina Women's Choir, organist Otto Lechner, the AccordiOna Disharmonic Cohort or Accordion Orchestra, and, of course, members of Laibach are also involved in the project.
In the spirit of international cultural cooperation between Iran and Slovenia, Laibach has been working for a long time to present and perform this work with the Tehran Symphony Orchestra in Iran, in Tehran's famous Vahdat Hall, but the epidemic and the tense international political situation in the last two years have made this presentation impossible or slowed down the arrangements. The historic symphony will, therefore, have its world premiere on 5 and 6 September 2022 at the Ljubljana Festival.
Source: Cankarjev dom
LAIBACH: ALAMUT – Premiere At The Festival Ljubljana
