Homeland (for Fixed Media)

Composer: Soheil Shirangi
Year of Creation: February 2017
Performances:

• July 2019 — Avini Hall, University of Fine Arts, University of Tehran (Closing of the 3rd Tehran International Electronic Music Festival)

• October 27–29, 2023 — 7th Annual Research Conference on Contemporary Composition, University of North Georgia (Virtual Session)
  YouTube Channel (ROCC)

Homeland is a sonic reflection on memory, identity, and belonging—a meditation on how the idea of “our mother’s house” lives within us, shaping both who we are and where we come from. It evokes the notion of home not only as a physical place but as an enduring emotional and cultural presence.

The piece draws inspiration from the auditory landscape of Iranian radio, incorporating fragments of national broadcasts, Azari folk material, and resonant vocal echoes. These sounds—processed, layered, and reimagined—create a dialogue between past and present, forming a bridge between collective memory and individual experience.

Through its evolving sound textures, Homeland captures the bittersweet tension between nostalgia and transformation. Each sonic gesture functions as a trace—of history, of distance, of connection—that lingers between remembering and forgetting. By weaving traditional elements into a modern fixed-media language, the piece becomes both personal and universal: an exploration of identity, exile, and the persistence of cultural memory.

At its heart, Homeland is not only an acoustic composition but a meditation on the resonance of sound as a vessel of belonging. It asks how we carry “home” within us—through voice, radio, memory, and silence—and how sound itself becomes a homeland that endures beyond place and time.