# Mohsen Namjoo

Mohsen Namjoo (Persian: محسن نامجو) is an Iranian singer-songwriter, composer, and musician. His style of music is influenced by blues and rock as well as Iranian folk music.

## Early life and education

Namjoo was born on 4 March 1976 in Torbat-e Jam, a small town in Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran. He was raised in the religious city of Mashhad. He started learning classical Persian music when he was 12. At a young age, he started listening to Western music and became interested in musicians like Jim Morrison, Eric Clapton, and Chris de Burgh.
He was admitted to the Tehran University of Art in 1994.

## Career

In late 1997 and early 1998, Namjoo had his first two concerts, themed "modern combination of Iranian poetry and music". In 2003 he started recording parts of his works in Tehran. His debut album titled Toranj was officially released in Iran in September 2007. This album mostly produced underground music and was very well-received among the Iranian community. This album insulted the Islamic regime, which forced him into exile in 2008. In 2009, while living in Vienna, he was sentence to five years in prison in absentia for recording music that "dishonours" passages from the Quran.
In 2010, Namjoo kicked off his "A Minor" tour, performing at many venues globally, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Sony Centre for the Arts in Toronto. Mohsen Namjoo also released a single entitled "Such Strange Times" in June, a song sung in English.
In the fall of 2011, Namjoo recorded his next album Alaki live during his concert in Stanford University. This album was part of his work in the Stanford Pan Asian Music Festival. The accompanying band consisted of Ali Bazyar (Percussion), Dina Zarif (back vocal), Tannaz Jaffari (back vocal), Serwah Tabbak (backing vocals), Siamack Sanaie (Guitar), Mark Deutsch: (Bazantar, Guitar)
In the fall of 2012, Namjoo released his new album, 13/8. Thirteen/eight is a compilation of six pieces that were developed in the United States during the previous year. The performance had been prepared in collaboration with California-based musicians James Riotto (Contrabass), Robert Shelton (Keyboard), Ezra Lipp (Drums) and Greg Ellis (Percussion). Payam Entertainment produced a series of live performances for 2012. The inaugural performance in Berkeley, California, will be recorded in preparation for a future double-album release by the same title.
In late 2013, Mohsen Namjoo became an Artist-in-Residence in the Brown University Middle East Studies department. On 7 December 2013, to kick off his residency, he performed at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. In spring 2014, he taught the course "Tradition and Protest: Persian and Iranian Music," and gave several musical talks to public audiences on topics including "Shahram Shabpareh: Honesty and Minor Scale" and Iranian Rhythms. The spring 2014 semester was capped by a concert on the evening of 10 May. In the fall of 2014, Namjoo taught "Revolution and Poets: Content and Form in Iranian Poetry."
His newest song named, "Begoo be baran" composed by Ehsan Matoori was released in March 2019 by Sheed Records company. His new album "Phantasm" composed and produced by Ehsan Matoori released on 27 April 2019, in San Francisco.

## In popular culture

Namjoo has appeared in several films. He was featured in the documentary Sounds of Silence (Amir Hamz and Mark Lazarz, 2006) which has been screened at international film festivals. He also acted in a feature narrative film called A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral (Saman Saloor, 2006) which played in various film festivals. In 2016, he played in the feature film Radio Dreams by Babak Jalali.

## Discography
### Albums
#### Studio albums

| | Title (English) | Title (Persian) |
| 2005 | Damavand | دماوند |
| 2006 | Jabr | گیس |
| 2007 | Toranj | ترنج |
| 2008 | Jabr-e Joghrafiyaei | جبرِ جغرافیایی |
| 2009 | Oy | آخ |
| 2011 | Useless Kisses | بوسه‌های بیهوده |
| 2014 | Trust the Tangerine Peel | از پوست نارنگی مدد |
| 2016 | Personal Cipher | صفر شخصی |
| 2018 | On the String of the Tear's Bow | بر چلّه کمان اشک |
| 2019 | Phantasm | سودای من |
| 2020 | Motantan | مطنطن |
| 2020 | Symphonic Odyssey | سمفونیک اودیسه |
| 2022 | Odd Time Rock | لنگ راک |
| 2023 | Restless | بی تاب |
| 2024 | Oula | اولى |

#### Live albums

| Year | Title (English) | Title (Persian) | Month |
| 2011 | Alaki | الکی | In December |
| 2012 | 13/8 | سیزده/هشت | In Fall |
| 2017 | Voices from the East | آوازهایی از شرق | In July |
| 2017 | Axis of Solitude | مؤلفۀ عزلت | In October |

## Books
### Audiobooks

* The Alchemist (by Paulo Coelho), produced by Caravan (publishing), 2008

### Books

* Dorrabe Makhdoosh (2017)
* Chahar Maghale (2018)

## Theatre

* Jana and Baladoor (2012 – A Play in Shadowzs, directed by Bahram Beyzai)
* Arash (2013 – A Play Reading, directed by Bahram Beyzai)

## Filmography

| Title | Year | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as | Notes | Ref. |
| Title | Year | Actor | Composer | Music department | Soundtrack | Notes | Ref. |
| Unforgotten Positives | 2004 | No | Yes | No | No | Short | |
| Kontrast | 2004 | No | Yes | No | No | Short | |
| Hofreh | 2006 | No | Yes | No | No | Short | |
| Chand kilo khorma baraye marassem-e tadfin | 2006 | Abbas | No | No | No | | |
| Hamkhaneh | 2007 | No | Yes | No | No | |
| Koodak, dirooz, khial | 2007 | No | Yes | No | No | Documentary | |
| Sky Without Passport | 2008 | Self | Yes | Yes | No | Documentary | |
| Not an illusion | 2009 | Self | No | No | No | Documentary | |
| Appropriate Behavior | 2014 | No | No | No | Yes | performer: "YAARE JAANI" (BIRJANDI ETHNIC) |
| Aramesh ba diazepam 10 | 2005 | Self | No | No | No | Documentary | |
| A Deep Breath to End | 2005 | No | Yes | No | No | Documentary | |
| Bodkin Ras | 2016 | No | Yes | No | Yes | | |
| Radio Dreams | 2016 | Hamid Royani | No | No | No | | |
| Behrouz: A Legend on Screen | 2017 | No | No | Yes | No | Documentary |
| The King of Feathers | 2020 | Self | No | No | No | | |
| Mitra | TBA | Self | Yes | No | No | post-production | |

## Performance
### Philadelphia, U.S.

2014: Mohsen Namjoo performed with the Al-Bustan Takht Ensemble as part of the Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture concert series.

### Stockholm, Sweden

2020: Mohsen Namjoo Performed with Stockholm Symphony Orchestra.