Delegates
the world music professionals directoryDj Ishtar
DJ Ishtar Womex Selection 2008
Journey into the universe of Worldtronic music with DJ Ishtar…
Groovy and tribal, danceable and mystical, DJ Ishtar indulges audiences with a whirling fusion of ethnic traditional music and modern electronica that soars from her decks and feels like a warm infusion for the soul.
DJ Ishtar was born in Iran in 1978 and settled in The Netherlands when she was 12 years old. Her sonic pilgrimage began at a young age: as the daughter of the sole distributors of western music in Iran at the time, she was nurtured with the psychedelic rock of Pink Floyd and the jazz of Coltrane, together with the traditional compositions of Iranian artists like Hossein Alizadeh.
By her late teens, she discovered her passion for electronic music in Amsterdam's House scene. After travelling through Middle East and India, she began to work as a DJ in 2003 at club Nomads in Amsterdam, where she went on to become a resident, and developed her approach to merging the two worlds of traditional ethnic music and electronica - creating the sound she now calls 'Worldtronica'.
Currently, she hosts her own radio show on a national Dutch station Radio 6, being the only DJ who has airplay for promoting Worldtronica in the Netherlands!
With a musical mastery that flows easily from one style and culture to another, she has become renowned for her impassioned performances at various venues, private parties and festivals across Europe, India and Turkey. She creates sound scapes that shift and change, playing with the audience - catching them off-guard before giving them a soft place to land.
Bringing together music from the Middle East, Africa and India, and blending it with sounds from Europe, Japan and South America, DJ Ishtar serves up a musical dish that is refreshingly unique.
Her journeys around the world constantly influence and shape her sound as they do her life. Her life flows into her music, expressing a desire to achieve that one special experience with her audience - a shared unity, love and respect for life, and a fantastic celebration of all the cultures the world has on offer.
Away from her decks, Ishtar's quest to merge cultural influences and break new ground continues: She is the ambassador of world music by and for the young generation of cosmopolitans, presenting it as a highly fashionable soundtrack of a new and exciting world!
 Lucy Crystal
Ishtar has performed at various national and international venues and festivals such as Dance Valley, Landjuweel, Rotterdam Film Festival, Sgra Factory, Jimmy Woo, Paradiso, Westergasfabriek and many more in the Netherlands; Algebra of Place & Images of Middle East Festival (Denmark), Club 7 (Bahrein), Namste (Ibiza), 360 Degrees, Local and Simdi (Istnabul, Turkey), Koila (Mumbay, India), Tmitar Festival (Agadir, Morocco)…
Radio www.radio6.nl
Web www.djishtar.com
Myspace www.myspace.com/djishtar
