Vas vocalist Azam Ali, Axiom of Choice's multi-instrumentalist Loga Ramin Torkian, and producer/remixer Carmen Rizzo have joined forces to create a globe-spanning sound that the trio calls "world music for the 21st century." Known collectively as Niyaz, the trio's first eponymous release is a hypnotic, ecstatic, and eminently danceable album that represents the best of both traditional world music and electronic music. All three of these musicians have built impressive individual careers.

With an ethereal, beguiling sound that evokes centuries of women's voices from medieval Europe to the modern Middle East, Azam Ali is best known as half of thebest-selling duo Vas (with percussionist Greg Ellis). Her singing has been heard in several major motion pictures including The Matrix: Revolutions and on many television programs such as Alias and The Agency. Of Azam's 2002 solo album, a Billboard reviewer raved, "It's unlikely that this year will bring a more spellbinding vocal album than Portals of Grace… Throughout, Ali's voice is a glorious, unforgettable instrument." Loga Ramin Torkian, whose band Axiom of Choice has won much critical acclaim, is deeply involved with the music of his homeland, Iran. He is accomplished on the guitar, the Turkish saz and electric guitarviol (a 14th century European bowed guitar), a traditional Persian lute, as well as other Turkish and Kurdish instruments. Loga also uses the Persian classical repertoire, known as the radif, within his own compositions. A two-time Grammy Award nominee, Carmen Rizzo has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including Seal, Alanis Morisette, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Khaled, Ekova, and Cirque du Soleil as well as Paul Oakenfold, BT, Esthero, Jem, Alpha, Tiesto and Grant Lee Phillips.

For these three artists, Niyaz represents a real departure from their usual avenues of artistic expression. Their first joint album weaves together ten beautiful, mystical poems written by some of the greatest Sufi poets of all time, with music accessible to a contemporary audience. Azam, who was born in Iran but largely raised in India, sings in both Farsi (the Persian language) as well as in Urdu, a language widely spoken in India and in Pakistan. The music, too, represents cultural blendings of the highest order, crossing back and forth over centuries of musical expression to combine ancient instruments, rhythms, and tonalities with brand new sounds. Mingling the textures of traditional acoustic music with new electronica, Niyaz represents a finely-tuned balance that ushers in a new era of artistic possibilities for Iranian music.Azam and Loga had known each other for well over a decade before coming together for this album. "We've talked for years about doing something together," notes Azam. "Now, the timing is right.".