Neighbors: in solidarity with Iran

Neighbors is a duo consisting of Reza Mirjalali (tar, oud, vocals) and Simone Bottasso (diatonic accordion).

SIMONE BOTTASSO (IT)
Musician, composer and conductor, Simone Bottasso began playing the accordion studying Occitan and French traditional music. He studied accordion with Norbert Pignol, Stephane Milleret, Silvio Peron, graduating as well in classical and jazz flute from the Conservatorio G.Verdi di Torino. In 2017 he graduated in jazz, contemporary, and electronic composition from CODARTS (Rotterdam, Netherlands).

As a musician and composer, he has collaborated in several projects and with ensembles that blend folk music with jazz, funk, rock, contemporary and electronic music, among them Duo Bottasso, Abnoba, Triotonico, The Folk Messengers, Neighbors, DNL, and Stygiens. Since 2015, he has been a member of Samurai, an international accordion quintet formed by Kepa Junkera, Riccardo Tesi, Dave Munnelly, and Markku Lepistu.

REZA MIRJALALI (IR)
Musician Reza Mirjalali started music at an early age. When he was 7, his father, Maestro Shahram Mirjalali, started teaching him Tombak (Persian Percussion) and a Tar (Persian string instrument). Reza Mirjalali managed to give concerts at the age of 14. At his 17th he started touring with his father and collaborating with other bands and musicians from other genres. He won several solo music and improvisation competitions in Iran.

His desire was to make a bridge between East and West Cultures through music. For this reason, in 2013, he moved to the Netherlands to study World Music at a conservatory. In 2017, he graduated from Codarts Conservatorium Rotterdam, The Netherlands. During his conservatory education, he gave many concerts worldwide and had collaborations with many bands and genres such as Persian traditional music, ottoman music, jazz, pop, and a duo with his father. Currently, he is working on his album.