IO (eye-oh) is the stage name for Payman Abdali
Payman Abdali was born on July 1965 in Tehran, Iran. He spent his early childhood in Khramshahr by the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. In high school he formed “Human Beast,” a Pop/Rock band with two of his best friends Kayvan and Ramin (www.golbang.se/ramin.html ) Payman moved to the USA in 1983 and studied Chemistry at California State University of Sacramento. He also studied music under the supervision of his long time friend and mentor Ted Lane and Electronic Music with Dr. Ben Glavinsky where his love for synthesizers flourished. He performed his and the University’s first “Electronic Music Recital” on October 27, 1987 in “Music Hall 151” in CSUS. In 1989 Payman and his friend Medi Ahmadi formed XDOT25 Music Productions (www.xdot25.com) and released his first album “Banafsh” (or Purple) which was an electro-pop Persian/English album.
Payman left XDOT25 and moved back to Iran on 1991 and scored for several Theater acts (The song of the fairy, Leila, Cane and Abel …) and was nominated for best Theater Score for “The song of the fairy” on 1993 in Fajr Theater Festival in Iran. During the same year he recorded his second album “Angel of thoughts” in Berkeley California which was released by XDOT25 in 1994. In 1993 he also met Naser Azizi (painter/vocalist) with whom he recorded numerous pieces (including scores for TV series and jingles) during the 1990’s. In the summer of 1995 his concert “Creation” in the Austrian Embassy was canceled by the Police just half an hour before the scheduled start time. This event had such a bad psychological effect on Payman that he stopped all musical activities for three years.
In 2001 he joint Yamaha as a Sales Supervisor where he met and befriended with Arthur Koll (www.proaudioseminars.net ) who taught Payman the fundamentals of Audio Engineering. With the new knowledge and his experience in Synth programming Payman started to work on sculpting the sounds that he wanted for his new albums. He simultaneously started to work on two albums “5” and “Persian Robots,” experimenting with a wide range of genres. Unfortunately both albums were not allowed to be released in Iran due to the complicated procedures of the Ministry of Culture of the Islamic Republic.
The new album “Music Hall 151” is a collection of pieces from the mentioned two albums that can fit in a definable genre. The title “Music Hall 151” is a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Payman Abdali’s first electronic music recital. It is difficult to classify Payman’s music but he calls it “Electro-ambient Persian Alternative Music.” For updates about Payman’s music visit www.io-music.com.

Album Notes

Music Hall 151

A picturesque electronic adventure that represents 20 years of dreaming. It is where nature and technology meet, where East and West walk side by side in a Persian Garden and in the forests by the river Elbe in Germany at the same time. It is the search for identity in the third millennium mixed with philosophical questions but not answers for a renaissance man. It is like breaking the walls of censorship in a completely polar world. Everything started in Music Hall 151. Synthesizers met their creators, the humans.

All music inspired, composed, arranged and performed by Payman Abdali
Vocals by Naser Azizi
Guitars by Sadredin Taheri
Backing vocals by Atoosa Kalantari and Nastaran Lashaie
Lyrics by Payman Abdali
Recorded and mixed by Payman Abdali, Arash Adelpour
Mastered by Arthur Koll
Art work by Sara Faghihnasiri

Acknowledgement:
I have been blessed to have many friends who helped me either by actual help on the album itself or by helping me spiritually: Sara Faghihnasiri for her great artwork on the album and her continues support in all of the ups and downs and through heaven and hell, Arthur Koll for being the Mastering Engineer a great friend and teacher, My parents and brother and sister for encouragement, Saeed Emdadi for always believing me, Ralph Kessler and Anjte Westerhoff for their encouragement and help in structuring the track list and last but not least Naser Azizi without whom this album would never be as it is.

Places with effect:
Bodega Bay north of San Francisco, the great Alborz Mountains north of Tehran, the forests around Hamburg, Music Hall 151.

Recording Location

Recorded and mixed by Payman Abdali, Arash Adelpour