Pouya Ehsaei 

Composer / Sound Designer/ Spatial Audio Designer

Pouya Ehsaei is an Iranian musician, sound designer, Spatial Audio Designer, producer, curator, radio host and music promoter residing in London.

Pouya has a diverse palette of sounds and styles, with experience in creating music that draws from Iranian, African, Cuban, Classical, Jazz, ambient, noise, industrial, field recording, and experimental electronic dance music genres. His music is visceral, visual, and immersive, shining in the creation of abstract, fantastical, yet tangible and relatable soundscapes.

Pouya also produces and performs as an experimental solo artist and with his band. He is the co-founder of music and poetry project From the Lips to the Moon and the leader of the Iranian/Cuban band Ariwo and the experimental collaborative band Parasang.

Starting his musical career in the underground scene of his hometown Tehran, he has performed at acclaimed venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre,Southbank Centre and the Royal Academy of Arts alongside festivals including Montreux Jazz Festival, Womex, Womad, Fusion, Shambala and Linecheck.

Recent Projects

Wish You Were Here

Director: Sepy Baghaei

Company: Gate Theatre

Amongst unibrows, forbidden music and shared wax strips, five women exchange dreams whilst planning their lives together. As unrest in Iran grows, wedding songs are replaced by sirens and protests break out across the country. Through political upheaval and drastic change, can their bonds hold strong, or will best friends forever become friends long lost?  

‘Pouya Ehsaei’s exquisite sound design plays a big part in reflecting the passing of time, switching from Iranian pop music to radio broadcasts and air raid sirens’ The Guardian

‘Pouya Ehsaei’s soundscape is genius: Iranian TV soaps, pop, news bulletins, eery abstract.’ Islington Gazette

  • Sound design and composition for a 14.2 speaker rig (devised by myself).

  • Incorporating audio samples from news broadcasts, field recordings of Iran’s revolution, public announcements from the Iran-Iraq war, and Iranian pop songs, I explored the interplay between reality, fantasy, and memory throughout the play. The sound design serves as a vital element in depicting the passage of time (spanning over 10 years in the play) and illustrating how the dynamics between characters change over this period.

The Assembly: Memory of Voice

Company: Pitchblack/Bidibul

The Assembly project is an immersive quest for the voice  at the crossroad between physical and virtual worlds. Discover an installation-based VR experience and performance inspired by the ancient practice of sounding together and taking you into the vast lands beneath language, into the sonic ecosystems of our timeless vocal territories.

  • I used the sound of one performer humming, singing and beatboxing to make melodic and rhythmic instruments which shape the entire sound of the project.

  • Composition and sound design for 12 speakers, 2 subs, sensors, lights and custom made objects. Fully interactive installation where the audience can interact with the objects and make sound.

  • Composition and sound design for VR. Audience members enter VR pods and make sounds using pre-designed virtual objects and sounds, individually and as an ensemble.

  • Composition and sound design for live performance. The performer sings and dances with the music and interacts with the audience in the installation space.

Can’t Stay at Home

a sound and audio walk with different performances through the streets of Mamer, Luxembourg. A collective work about the forgotten ones of the Covid-19 crisis, their voices and perspectives. Using field recordings from the path of the walk, the listener would go to a hybrid world in which the sounds of the surrounding (real) merges with pre-recorded and synthesised sounds (imaginary)

“Through an immersive theatrical journey, equipped with headphones, you are invited to wander the streets of Mamer. Along the way, you will encounter various installations and performances — dance, theater, and music — shedding light on those forgotten by our society. The invaluable testimonies collected as part of this project remind us that safety is a privilege never to be taken for granted, bringing to life a work that is both poignantly relevant and profoundly moving.”

Past Projects (Theatre, Film, Dance)

Portal - Royal Oprah House -Juanjo Arqués/Acosta Danza

Not what was meant - Venice Biennale - Reza Aramesh

Always Already - Edinburgh Horizon Showcase, Dance4 (Fabric), Chapter - Haranczak/Navarre

GAUGEMANCY - Centre Pompidou/ La Raffinerie - Ali Moini/Latitudes Contemporaines

Theatre Peckham Archive sound installation - Theatre Peckham

 Pajoma - Bernie Grant Arts Centre - Andrea Ling/Arts Bridge

Mishandled Archive - Nottdance, Nuffield Theatre, Toynbee Studios, Peckham Rye Park - Tara Fatehi

International Exchange of Terrible Pop - Cambridge Junction - 30Bird

Bodiless Heads - Arti et Amicitiae (Amsterdam) - Stichting Tussenruimte

Meridian Rhubarb - SPILL Festival - /gorizazmarkaz/

Seksese - Molavi Thatre - Tara Fatehi, Sarah Feli

Asymmetry - East Gallery - Tara Fatehi, Sarah Feli

Dear Hypothetical, there is oil all over the place - Chelsea Theatre - Tara Fatehi

Sarmad - Dance Film Festival UK/ Video Danzaba - Shirin Talhouni