Arash Sobhani

RAD Arts Foundation Proudly Presents Arash Sobhani Live in Los Angeles About The Event Arash Sobhani is an internationally recognized Iranian musician, songwriter, and producer. Best known as the founder of Kiosk—a cornerstone of Iranian alternative music for over two decades—his sharp lyricism and fearless voice have earned global acclaim, with features in Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, BBC, TIME, The Guardian, and NPR. Now based in New York, Sobhani presents his debut solo album, DOOD (“Smoke”), a work that embodies the city’s cosmopolitan spirit, where cultures, genres, and ideas collide. Written in Farsi yet resonating far beyond language, his songs are private and poetic, carrying an undercurrent of political awareness—never didactic, always universal. DOOD marks a new chapter for Sobhani, offering a deeply personal sound for a discerning global audience. ALBUM OVERVIEW DOOD is the sound of cosmopolitan New York—free-form, unpredictable, and alive with voices from every direction. The album features musicians from Serbia, Greece, Norway, Canada, Russia, and the US, each bringing their own vocabulary to a set of songs that move between jazz, rebetiko, klezmer, swing, and Persian melody. The arrangements are loose and modern, with space for improvisation. At the center are Sobhani’s lyrics: a blend of existential wit (Khayyam) and raw, observational poetry (Dylan), delivered with a stoic acceptance of life’s contradictions. These are songs for anyone who’s ever felt unmoored—lyrics that ask questions, not to preach, but to find kinship in the unresolved.