Other Minds is pleased to present Tattoos and Other Markings by composer and violinist Thea Farhadian. This album delves into the power of memory through a rich tapestry of musical influences, blending Farhadian’s training in classical violin, electronics, and Arabic classical music.

Drawing on her experiences with improvisation, Farhadian weaves together a symphonic exploration of memory via her own family history. While working on Tattoos and Other Markings, Farhadian discovered the historical practice of tattooing Armenian women and girls abducted, sold, and rescued from the death marches during the Armenian Genocide. While conducting this research, she found her grandmother’s sister was tattooed during the genocide as a young girl, prompting a deep reflection on cultural memory and the marks left by history. In the music, Farhadian explores the impressions of this history by integrating an early 20th-century recording of an Armenian folk song with contemporary field recordings from Armenia and Egypt and mechanical sounds from a letterpress and MRI Machine.

Tattoos and Other Markings is a profound sonic journey that questions what we remember, what we forget, and the marks that define us. Discover Farhadian’s unique voice and exploration of cultural memory through this extraordinary album.

The music is intense, even noisy at times, has some very dark textures and is by no means ‘pleasant’ music, but that’s the beauty here…The tragedy, the noise, the sadness, loss, all of those things, into these heavy blocks of sounds transformed by software. The four pieces are like black clouds over a barren landscape. This CD has some bleak music but also beautiful grimness. Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, December 2024

1 · Mokats Mirza, 12:21
2 · Eulogy, 18:21
3 · Inscriptions, 8:19
4 · There was and there was not, 5:16