*In Light of Recent Events*

This release was scheduled prior to the recent attacks on Iran. While today is a time for sharing music, it is also one of mourning and reflection.
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من فقط برای سایه‌ای که بر دیوار افتاده می‌نویسم، هم‌او که با من یکی‌ست، ولی دستم به او »
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀«.نمی‌رسد

I write only for the shadow that has fallen upon the wall—he who is one with me, yet beyond my reach.

— Sadegh Hedayat (صادق هدایت), The Blind Owl (بوف کور)

آیینه‌ی دق (Mirror of Decay) is the first in a series of compositions deeply informed by the writings of Sadegh Hedayat, one of the most enigmatic and essential figures in 20th-century Iranian literature. This particular piece—and the broader cycle it initiates—draws heavily from Hedayat’s magnum opus, The Blind Owl (بوف کور), a work defined by its psychological intensity and metaphysical despair, which have made it both an enduring literary monument and a profoundly controversial cultural artifact. Written during the early 1930s and first published in 1937 in Bombay, India, this novel not only pioneered modernist Iranian literature but also reflects, through its existential themes and pervasive sense of alienation, the sociopolitical tensions and cultural anxieties that accompanied Iran’s rapid modernization and political upheaval during that period.

The song’s title refers to a mirror drawn from Iranian folklore—an object believed not to reflect one’s outward appearance, but rather to reveal a horrifying image of the viewer as sickly, skeletal, and approaching death. It is a symbolic object said to hasten one’s demise simply through exposure to the truth it reveals. Within the narrative, the mirror becomes a recurring and haunting motif—a distorted surface reflecting internal collapse, self-loathing, and the erosion of memory and identity. In both the novel and this composition, the mirror is less an object than a psychological state: a silent witness to the slow decay of the self.

Musically, Mirror of Decay is composed in the Bayat-e Esfahan modal system, a mode within the Iranian classical radif that exists as either a derivative of Dastgah-e Shur or Dastgah-e Homayun, depending on the analytical framework employed. It utilizes the koron (half-flat), a microtonal interval unique to Iranian music. As in my previous work, I perform it here on both Iranian tar and microtonal electric guitar. The result is an uneasy dialogue between classical Iranian modality and raw black metal expression—a convergence that defines Akvan’s sound and intent.

This series of compositions was written and recorded during the winter of 2024–2025 in a small apartment I rented in Rey—a historically significant city now part of Greater Tehran, and notably, the very setting of the novel.

Sadegh Hedayat died by suicide in Paris in 1951, a tragic act that has often been linked to the profound existential themes permeating his work. The Blind Owl in particular has long been associated with what some scholars have referred to as a cultural epidemic of suicide among Iranian youth and intellectuals—those who saw in his writing a reflection of their own despair. As a result, the book has faced repeated bans across political regimes: under Reza Shah Pahlavi, his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and later the Islamic Republic, which continues to treat the novel with suspicion due to its existential fatalism and its subversive psychological content. And yet, despite—or perhaps because of—these efforts to suppress it, The Blind Owl persists: a masterwork of Iranian prose, a rite of passage for many, and a testament to the enduring power of art to disturb, reflect, and survive.

This release—and the ones to follow—will be available exclusively on Bandcamp.

To those who choose to enter this abyss with me—your presence is not taken lightly.

Thank you for sharing in the descent.
—Vizaresa