Mohsen Namjoo returns to Iran after nearly 20 years

Tehran - BORNA - Namjoo said in a recently released video message that after years of living outside Iran, he had decided to return home.

“This message will be seen when I am either on a flight to Tehran or have already arrived on Iranian soil,” he said.

Explaining his decision, Namjoo said that at this stage of his life, being in his homeland and close to his family, sisters, relatives and friends had become more important to him than the possibility of pursuing musical or cultural activities in Iran.

He also expressed hope that he would spend the coming years alongside those close to him.

Namjoo is a well-known figure in Iranian fusion music whose professional career developed in the 2000s within Tehran’s underground music scene.

In the early years of his career, he performed in small gatherings, student venues, cafés and private circles. Some of his works circulated informally through the internet and MP3 files before they were officially released.

This helped make Namjoo known among underground music audiences before the release of his first official album, “Toranj,” in 2007. Some of the album’s tracks had already been widely heard and downloaded online prior to its official release.

From the outset, Namjoo’s style was based on combining elements of Iranian music with Western genres.

He blended the intervals and vocal ornamentation of Iranian music, as well as instruments such as the setar, with rhythms and structures drawn from blues, rock and jazz, while also departing from conventional approaches to traditional Iranian singing.

His distinctive use of vocal ornamentation, stretched and altered sounds, speech-like or shouted delivery, and the placement of everyday language alongside classical Persian poetry became defining features of his musical style.

Namjoo also used works by classical Persian poets in his music while incorporating colloquial language and his own unconventional mode of expression.

Those stylistic departures drew criticism from some traditional-music enthusiasts and critics from the early years of his career, with some viewing his approach to singing and genre-mixing as a departure from, or even a challenge to, the conventions of Iranian music.

Namjoo left Iran in 2007 and continued his musical activities abroad, spending a significant part of his career in Europe and later in the United States.

Now, after around 19 years, his latest video message has once again brought his name to the forefront of Iran’s music scene.

No details have yet been released about whether or how he plans to resume artistic activities inside the country.

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