In 2019, Ensemble Diaspora released a recording of its first original song, Ritual.

The song began as a beautiful Celtic-inspired instrumental written by our violinist Sebastian Flynn, and took on a life of its own when our percussionist Arash Zanganeh added a mesmerising vocal line drawing from Persian Sufi music.

After performing Ritual at festivals and events over the last few years, Arash had the idea to record it and experiment with musical layering.

The recording took place across continents – in Australian and Iran! The band’s regular members laid down parts at The Edge – an inspiring digital culture space at the State Library of Queensland. The exquisite lead vocal was later recorded in Iran by guest artist Saman Sarami.

Wonderfully unexpectedly, through Saman’s connections, satellite network GEM TV offered to make a video clip for the song! The beautiful video (featuring Saman Sarami) exceeded our expectations and is available to watch on YouTube.

We hope you enjoy Ritual! Stream or download it at all the usual places.

Credits:
Saman Sarami: Guest Vocals
Susanna O’Leary: Vocals & Recitation
Sebastian Flynn: Violin
Wendy Lang: Clarinet & Backing Vocals
Cieavash Arean: Backing Vocals
Martin Reese: Mandolin & Mandola
Francis Gilfedder: Didgeridoo
John Druery: Double Bass
Arash Zanganeh: Daf & Chaqana

Composers: Sebastian Flynn & Arash Zanganeh
Arranger: Arash Zanganeh
Production & Recording: Arash Zanganeh & Wendy Lang
Recording Engineer: Wendy Lang (with great help from staff at The Edge, State Library of Queensland
Lyrics: Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi
Translator: Siyavash Doostkhah
Mixing and Mastering: Mehdi Danaie, Studio Ansoo
Recorded at The Edge, State Library of Queensland, Australia.