Liraz, the highly touted Israeli-Persian singer, performs music from her buoyant and border-busting new album ‘Zan’, where shimmering electro-pop meets pulsing dance rhythms and retro Persian sonics.

Liraz has taken her shimmering electro-pop underground. She’s turned it into something dangerous and even more beautiful than before. For her second album, Zan ‘Women’ in Farsi), the Israeli-Persian singer collaborated online with composers and musicians from Iran. Everything had to be secretive to avoid the gaze of Tehran’s mullahs and secret police. The result is her private revolution, songs with a true message, music to make people dance and smile – and above all, think. The songs on Zan are the fulfilment of a dream, taking Liraz deep into the soul of the country that fills her heart and populated the stories her parents told her as a child – but one she’s never seen. They were written for the women in her family and to connect with her own history, quite often the same thing.

‘I sing because of these women, to them, for them’ Liraz explains. ‘My grandmothers were engaged when they were 11 and 12 and married at 15. They both had many children, but they had so much passion for life. I grew up with so many crazy stories about these women. My mother broke down the walls around women. So did my aunt. I watched them since I was a child. They fought for their freedom, and I’m fighting for mine, telling the stories about them in my songs.’

‘That such a cohesive record was created via digital collaboration is fascinating. Zan is a great and worthy achievement, undertaken by musicians who were quite literally taking a risk. Perhaps this passion, tension and determination accounts for the emotional impact of the results.’ Folk Radio

Please note that this is a standing event. Please email info@kingsplace.co.uk to discuss your access requirements.