Axiom of Choice updates traditional Iranian music

The 11th-century Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam is best known to Western readers for Edward Fitzgerald's translation of a couplet from "The Rubaiyat": "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough / A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou." Today, those lines usually are caricatured as a romantic come-on, if not as an advertising slogan for wineries. But Khayyam was far deeper than that.

"He's a very controversial character," explains composer and guitarist Loga Ramin Torkian, whose contemporary Persian music group, Axiom of Choice, has just recorded a disc dedicated to Khayyam, "Unfolding" (Narada World).

The ensemble kicks off the University of Washington's World Music and Theatre Series at 8 p.m. tomorrow, at Meany Theater ($24; 206-543-4880).

"Some people say his poetry is about eternal moments, primarily, because (he says) you don't know where you came from or where you're going," continues Torkian.

"But his poetry makes no reference to God. It is very popular among people who are drinking. Was he an atheist, or was he more like a Zen master? His poetry has that battle within it."

Axiom of Choice takes up some of those questions on "Unfolding," which mixes the haunting, warbling vocals of Mamak Khadem with a panoply of Western and Middle Eastern instruments: guitar, electric cello, ney (flute), clarinet, kamancheh (spike violin) duduk and zurna (oboes), saz and divan (strings), and percussion. Torkian also plays a custom-made, seven-string "quarter-tone" guitar with movable frets, which allows him to bridge Western and Eastern scales.

Torkian, who studied violin as a child in Iran, then flamenco guitar after immigrating to Eugene, Ore., in 1978 at age 14, writes Axiom's compositions. They are based on traditional Iranian music, updated for a young audience. Western-world fusion guitarists Ralph Towner (and his group, Oregon), and John McLaughlin are major influences.

"I played for a while with a traditional ensemble in L.A.," says Torkian, noting that there is significant Iranian population in Southern California. "But it was like taking a lion to the zoo. I felt I had to do something that belonged to the immigrant community, that was a crossover of all my influences, from India, Iran, Japan and Western jazz."

Torkian eschews the description New Age, because of its suggestion of ethnic rootlessness. As a practical matter, however, the distinction is academic. Axiom of Choice trades in the kind of ambient, seductive, self-consciously exotic potions that waft through ethnic shops — not surprising, since Torkian owns one, on Melrose Street.

A mathematician turned artist himself (like Khayyam), Torkian opened his shop in 1992, the same year he started the group.

To purists who turn up their noses at such tinkering with tradition, Torkian responds, "Music is dynamic. We live in a different time, at a different tempo."

For those curious about Middle Eastern traditional music, Turkish oud player Munir Beken, who teaches ethnomusicology at the UW, will host a pre-show conversation, at 7:15 p.m.

Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247 or pdebarros@seattletimes.com