This musical cinematic odyssey is by a team of young and brilliant musicians, animation and video editors who have worked ardently over the past seven years to bring the world renown spiritual Persian poem called "The Conference of the Birds" to life. The poet, Attar, wrote this piece in the 12/13 centuries; it is a highly metaphorical journey of self-discovery as well as search for Divine Perfection; a sophisticated Sufi mystical flight represented by various birds in search of their King. Each bird represents a human flaw that creates obstacles in approaching the Divine and union with the Source or Simorgh. Their flight symbolises our earthly toil as well as the parting of souls, catharsis, and fulfilment of one’s potential. When only thirty birds are able to pass the many tempting impediments and reach the pinnacle of a magical Mount called Qaf (signifying the twilight zone between spiritual and mundane), they realise that the legendary Simorgh is but a reflection of......

The realisation of this mystical story into a cinematic odyssey is indeed an audicious task. Although there have been many theatrical plays worldwide on the Conference of the Birds, there has been no music, animation and complete video designed for this story. This is the first attempt to compose music with a symphonic orchestra together with ethnic musical instruments from around the world to convey the story of this spiritual realisation. The consists of several modalities. The first mode is the gathering of the birds in search of a King and interactions with the hoopoe with symphonic music; the violin represents the hoopoe. The second mode consists of Azari, Chinese, Indian, Arabic, Armenian, and Persian music fused together with western symphonic orchestra. The hesitance of the Nightingale and its attachment to flowers is represented by Azari Tar; the Peacock is represented by the Chinese Erhu, the Parrot by the Indian Sitar, the Hawk by the Arabian Oud, the Hawk, and the Bearded vulture (Homa) by Iranian Se-Tar. The seven valleys that the birds need to travel are represented by symphonic orchestra. In the Valley of Detachment, the music switches to an Iranian melody by Niloofar accompanied by a reed. In the Valley of Unity, Reed, Tar and Iranian percussions come into play. In the Valley of Poverty and Annihilation, Nilofar and Meysam sing in traditional Persian Dastgah  (Dashti/Shur). The music is narrated by two theatre performers/elocutionist from the UK. Animations and video clips from Attar’s homeland will guide you along this musical journey.

Farokh is a retired Professor at Sharif University of Technology and King’s College London. He has also produced and managed a concert on East Meets West in 2003 with a CD called Ascension. He was also the producer of the Gathering of the Birds Concert in London in 2020.

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