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The ever-curious output of award-winning Iranian-Canadian composer Saman Shahi covers everything from orchestral pieces to unique multicultural instrumentation, and from electronics to three operas. Where his 2020 debut album, the acclaimed Breathing In The Shadows (Leaf Music), demonstrated his prowess by serving up an ultra-diverse set of three song cycles, its follow-up Microlocking has a sharper sonic focus and showcases the composer's singular ear for texture and rhythmic interplay.

Clocking it at just shy of 25 minutes, its duration may be brief but the disc's four tracks are packed with florid dynamism. Straight away, one hears the keyboard-centric Toronto chamber trio junctQín unfurling mesmeric spirals of sound. Performing on six digital pianos, half of which are tuned a quarter-tone sharp, Microlocking I takes a pitch-as-colour approach to microtonality and imbues the notoriously flat tone of these electronic instruments with peculiar vibrancy. The three pianists knit ostinato figures together producing a sonic fabric that ripples and shimmers in unexpected ways.

The series' second instalment digs deeper into the esoteric. It's the result of extensive workshopping between the composer and guitarist, composer and People Places Records' co-curator Andrew Noseworthy whose playing incorporates both an array of techniques and electronic treatments. While the inspiration behind its iterating cells of material, warping tones, and mutant guitar shred could've just as easily come from rock or even electronic music, the composer calls the work “an effort to fuse groove and microtonality with inspirations from both the contemporary classical methodology as well as Iranian traditional improvisation practices.”

Microlocking III delves further into the abstraction of its predecessor and although it maintains the propulsive energy of its companion pieces, its passages of fierce, chugging accordion virtuosity frequently give way to sonic gesticulation and bending swells of pure tone. Spurts of electronics careen throughout Matti Pulkki's agile performance, alternately ricocheting off of particular motions or casting certain sonorities in an unexpected microtonal hue.

The disc concludes with a surprising turn — a remix of the first piece by Tehran-based electronic music producer Behrooz Zandi, a recent addition to the roster of Berlin label Amselcom. Though many of his other productions are rooted in a climactic, club-friendly approach, Zandi—who also plays tar, an Iranian lute—also integrates the microtonal scales of Iranian music into his robust, vigorously rhythmic compositions. His reimagining of Shahi's piece is a twitchy downtempo affair that pushes skittering beats and uneasy synthetic textures through mazes of chopped-up quarter-tone piano.

Over the past decade, Saman Shahi has emerged as one of the most vibrant compositional voices in Toronto's contemporary music scene. He has produced a richly varied catalogue of work that has seen international performance and an array of exciting collaborations. In 2011, he co-founded the collective ICOT— Iranian Composers of Toronto—and also serves as the organization's executive director. Alongside the collective he's received commissions from the National Ballet of Canada and Tirgan Festival and featured on BBC Persia. His work has also been featured at the 21st Century Guitar Conference, Nuit Blanche, Ottawa Chamberfest, on the CBC, and he has worked with the Canadian Opera Company as a composer and teaching artist. Shahi is also active as a pianist and conductor, leading the Peterborough Concert Band and performing the work of living composers.

-Nick Storring