Sina Bathaie

Born in Yazd, Iran, in 1986, Sina Bathaie has built a career at the crossroads of Persian music, world fusion, film composition and electronic music. A performer centered on the santour, he weaves melodic lines from the Iranian repertoire and structures closer to electronica and progressive house into largely instrumental pieces. Also trained on the tar with Keivan Saket and on the oud with Mohammad Firouzi, he has been shaped by a constant dialogue between Middle Eastern traditions and contemporary formats. Over the course of his career he became an Iranian-Canadian artist and has composed for film, with scores notably for The Horse Latitudes, Un royaume déménage, Ameno and Mr Settled Immigrant. His 2017 album Ray of Hope clearly illustrates this hybrid approach: the santour holds a central place, surrounded by arrangements that draw as much from Eastern music as from orchestral pop and chamber music, featuring guests such as cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne. On stage and in the studio, Sina Bathaie circulates these influences across electronic scenes, instrumental fusion settings and music for image.