Ava Rasti explores belonging, identity and displacement on new album
“I wanted to explore the tension between the desire to leave and the need to belong. Rather than offering answers, the album sits with these contradictions, tracing a search for home in a world where home can feel both deeply familiar and impossibly distant”
Iranian composer and sound artist Ava Rasti has released ‘No One Knows How Wild the Wind Blows’, an eight-track album exploring themes of belonging, identity and displacement through ambient compositions and layered electronic textures.
The album was first announced on 26 August alongside its title track, while the second single, ‘Tehran’, was released on 30 October, the same day as the full album. Written between 2024 and 2026, the record incorporates layered drones, shifting textures and melodic fragments to explore themes of belonging, identity and displacement.
Much of the album took shape during a period when Rasti was moving between countries and searching for a place to call home. Those experiences informed its compositions, which move between sustained ambient passages and more unsettled arrangements, reflecting the uncertainty of living between different places.
“I wanted to explore the tension between the desire to leave and the need to belong. Rather than offering answers, the album sits with these contradictions, tracing a search for home in a world where home can feel both deeply familiar and impossibly distant,” the artist said.
As work on the album progressed, developments in Iran also influenced the circumstances in which it was completed. Watching the outbreak of war from abroad while unable to return home brought additional meaning to the record's central themes. Although the project was not initially conceived as a response to those events, they became part of the personal context surrounding its creation.
The album's title draws inspiration from ‘How Wild the Wind Blows’ by Molly Drake, referencing the unpredictability of circumstances beyond individual control.
“The title speaks to the vulnerability of living through uncertain times while continuing to move forward without knowing where the wind will carry us. Like a ship in the ocean, everything depends on the pressure of the wind,” she explained.
The music video for the album’s title track was directed by Aslan Mohammadpour.
‘No One Knows How Wild the Wind Blows’ is out now via 130701.
