Link Music Lab presents the Toronto debut of up-and-coming Iranian, California/Vancouver-based composer and sound artist Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi on electronics in collaboration with versatile Finnish, Toronto-based accordionist Matti Pulkki. The unexpected sonic textures emerging from their clever combination of electroacoustic and contemporary classical will be enhanced by media artist Andrew O’Connor’s intricate, other-worldly live visuals.

“Tension is a kind of pleasure”, muses Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi. The Stanford University graduate in Music Composition explores the unfamiliar familiar while driven by concepts of motion, interaction and growth. Koochakzadeh-Yazdi performs electronic music and writes for hybrid instrumental/electronic ensembles with work performed at festivals globally. As a cross-disciplinary artist she is a frequent collaborator on various electronic recordings, and her recent EP, “Sonic Lustre,” amply displays her ability to be fearlessly minimal while evoking big emotions.

Accordionist Matti Pulkki reimagines the possibilities of his instrument through collaboration. While concentrating on original classical contemporary works for free-bass accordion in his solo repertoire, he is eager to arrange and perform music from a wide variety of styles and genres including klezmer, folk and jazz. Holding Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in accordion performance from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Pulkki is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Toronto. He is a part of the Freesound contemporary music collective and the internationally renowned ensemble Quartetto Gelato.

Experimental Link Series contemplates the Persian-Canadian experience by reinvigorating, re-exploring and re-imagining Persian traditional music within contemporary and cosmopolitan Toronto by inviting different musicians from the diaspora to collaborate and perform together. The series will explore connections between identity, culture, and musical creation.

Link Music Lab gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Canadian Heritage, Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.