Alan Kushan

Time Traveller Suite is an epic over 18-minutes musical odyssey that bridges the ancient world with the limitless possibilities of the future. Guided by the timeless voice of the Persian santoor, Alan Kushan invites the listener on a voyage through civilizations, forgotten landscapes, and the enduring spirit of Persian culture—a civilization that has witnessed the rise and fall of empires, yet continues to inspire through its art, poetry, and music.

At the heart of this recording is an extraordinary instrument conceived and handcrafted by Alan himself. Inspired by the traditional Persian santoor, this monumental concert instrument is built on a larger scale and strung with a unique combination of piano, harp, and harpsichord strings. The result is a breathtaking sonic palette that ranges from delicate whispers to majestic orchestral textures, revealing colors and resonances rarely heard from a single instrument.

Blending centuries-old Persian melodies with contemporary composition and cinematic soundscapes, Time Traveller Suite moves effortlessly across time—honoring the past while embracing the future. It is a meditation on memory, transformation, and continuity, reminding us that while civilizations evolve and the world around us is constantly changing, the human desire to create, to remember, and to imagine remains timeless.

Through this singular performance, Alan Kushan invites us to become fellow travelers—journeying beyond history, beyond geography, and beyond the boundaries of time itself.

A Sip of Fire is a mesmerizing collaboration between acclaimed visual artist, poet, musician, and writer Koorosh Angali and renowned Santoor Maestro Alan Kushan. Rooted in the rich traditions of Persian art and inspired by the timeless poetry of Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, the album weaves expressive spoken word with beautifully improvised santoor performances, creating an intimate journey of reflection, passion, and spiritual discovery.

A lifelong student of Persian culture, Koorosh Angali has earned numerous awards in the visual arts, music, and literature. A painter, poet, stage actor, and scholar, he is celebrated for his evocative interpretations of Rumi's poetry and his ability to unite classical Persian tradition with contemporary artistic expression. His lyrics for The Child Within received the San Francisco Weekly Wammies Award.

Alan Kushan is widely regarded as one of the finest santoor performers of his generation. His masterful artistry combines the elegance of Persian classical music with a deeply personal and innovative musical voice. Together, Angali's heartfelt recitations and Kushan's spontaneous performances create a living dialogue where poetry and music breathe as one.

A Sip of Fire is an invitation to experience the enduring beauty of Persian culture through a timeless fusion of poetry, music, and artistic expression.

The Dawn is a meditation on beginnings — that fragile, luminous moment when night finally gives way to first light. In Persian tradition, dawn has always carried a special weight: it is the hour of poets and travelers, of remembrance and renewal, when the world feels briefly suspended between what has passed and what is still to come.

These compositions have lived with Alan Kushan for many years, deepening and evolving alongside him. Here they emerge fully reborn — newly refined, and mastered — carrying both the intimacy of long companionship and the freshness of a first morning. What was once memory becomes arrival; what was once longing becomes light.

At the center of it all is the singular voice of Alan's own handcrafted Santoor. Designed after the traditional Persian instrument and strung with piano and harp strings, it moves from the most delicate shimmer — like light breaking over a horizon — to vast, orchestral waves of sound, revealing colors rarely heard from a single instrument.

The Dawn is an invitation to stand at that threshold: to listen as darkness dissolves, and to greet what rises with open hands.

Unlocking the Architecture of Memory

Gate Crashing is a journey through unseen thresholds—a place where time dissolves, space bends, and memory becomes a living landscape rather than a distant recollection.

These compositions do not attempt to describe a destination. Instead, they explore the moment when an invisible gate begins to open. The boundaries between past and future, silence and sound, the familiar and the unknown gradually lose their certainty. What remains is movement—an endless current flowing through consciousness, much like galaxies traveling through the immeasurable fabric of the universe.

Blending driving electronic textures with the timeless resonance of the Persian santoor, Alan Kushan creates a dialogue between ancient memory and modern energy. The music does not seek conflict between these worlds; it allows them to coexist, revealing unexpected harmony where opposites meet.

We live in an age where change often arrives without warning. Long-held structures can shift overnight, and certainty can become fragile. Yet every ending also reveals the possibility of another beginning. Every barrier that breaks apart can become an opening toward understanding.

Perhaps our deepest memories are not simply records of the past, but blueprints waiting to be rediscovered—fragments of something larger that connect us across cultures, generations, and even beyond what we can explain.

What is thought? Where does inspiration arise? Why do certain sounds awaken emotions we never knew we carried?

There may never be final answers.

Perhaps the questions themselves are the gates.

And perhaps hope is the quiet force that gives us the courage to walk through them.

Alan Kushan, avant-garde musician and concert-performer of Persian/Iranian descent; musical composer; musical instrument-maker; actor; singer; and poet. Alan is an internationally recognized Persian avant-garde 'santoorist', and the leading exponent of the New Santoor style. After passing through multifarious phases of musical composition and performance on his supremely delicate yet highly sophisticated musical instrument — his self-made hammer dulcimer or santoor, ranging from traditional Persian music, to fusions of Western classical and Persian mystical music, to jazz and world music, as well as futuristic and avant-garde music, Alan Kushan is still audaciously and earnestly experimenting in the musical realm. His techniques on his self-made santoor are indeed altogether fascinating and breathtaking. He studied music composition in Zurich, Köln and Berlin as well as Canada and USA; he also studied with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Karlheinz Stockhausen and other master musicians.

One of Alan Kushan's many contributions to the SANTOOR has been to broaden its musical range by increasing the number of bridges (notes) available to the musician. This expands the SANTOOR from a typically restricted pitch area into an instrument capable of traveling previously unexplored musical territories. Alan designs and constructs these unique SANTOORS and, in addition to differing gauges of steel and copper wire, he uses piano and harp strings to create fascinating variations in tonal quality. In this album he is accompanied by Abhijit Banerjee on Tabla.

The original compositions in this album reflect influences from Africa, Persia, India, Romania, and the Blues. The goal was to interconnect musical colors relating to a tranquil mind environment & Santoor as an instrument. In this album Alan Kushan on Santoor and Voices is accompanied by Ramesh Misra on Sarangi, Pranesh Khan on Tabla, Robert Simms on Keyboard & Percussion.

Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view / Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend; / All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due, / Utt'ring bare ruth, even so as foes commend. — Shakespeare

Pegah (Dawn) A Persian Diaspora — The dispersion of originally homogeneous people beyond the borders of time and place. A migration.

Alan Kushan is arguably one of the most accomplished Santoor players in the world. The instrument which Alan uses is also his own invention, which is designed after the traditional Persian Santoor (hammered dulcimer). His creates brilliant realizations of traditional Persian compositions, combined with innovative Avant-garde soundscapes. The sound you hear in "Time Traveler Suite" is from a new and unique instrument designed and hand crafted by Alan Kushan, using strings from Piano, Harp and Harpsichord.