Azphodel

Azphodel Bio:

Acoustic and electronic musician and composer Zane Lazos is the sole official member of the music and performance art project known as Azphodel. Azphodel has astounded audiences internationally with it’s potent mix of heavy electronic sounds and an array of traditional Turkish, Persian, and experimental and electronic instruments. Azphodel has performed at venues as divergent as Portland’s celebrated Fez and Bossa Nova Ballrooms to completely unique settings such as the Fabriqué Braço de Prada culture and arts center in Lisbon and the Eski Beyrut ethnic music club in Istanbul.

Following a second round of study in Turkey with master tanbur and yaylı tanbur performer and educator Sadun Aksüt, as well as performances in Istanbul and Denizli, Azphodel is currently in production with a new video and a new single to complement the recently released album Sacrament.

Azphodel is: Zane Lazos on vocals, yaylı tanbur, mey, def, other assorted percussion, computer music controller interface, as well as all digital music sound design and composition, ritual performance art, and conspiratorial collaborative choreography with belly dancers as needed.*
Amongst the time spent laying down tribal trance-inducing grooves in world dance music environments, Azphodel can also be heard in smaller venues playing an entrancing mixture of traditional Turkish music and completely original selections all within an powerfully intimate setting.

*Yaylı tanbur (yai-luh tan-bur) is the long-necked bowed lute with amazing overtones that is derived from the older plucked Ottoman art music instrument called tanbur. The mey is a Turkish folk oboe with a large cane reed. Persia is the land of origin of the def, a frame drum with distinctive metal bangles and evocative tone.