Sina Bathaie's Live Performance is a Timely and Necessary Intersection of Music, Culture, and Era
Evan Dale | May 28, 2026
‘There’s something happy and something sad in all his music,’ my Persian father-in-law-to-be describes as he introduces me to Sina Bathaie’s music for the first time late this past Winter. Then and there, I can hear what he’s saying. The youthful Iranian-born, Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist and producer exists at the confluence of more multitudes than most. Most of the Iranian diaspora does, and the reality of those intersections comes through in Sina Bathaie’s music.
Fast forward two months to his show at Denver’s Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, and those personal and creative dynamics play themselves out in real time. His sound is a uniquely modern twist on the textures and instrumentation of a very ancient – and also very modern – culture. Without that culture and the forebears of the instruments – like the santur which underlines many of his tracks, along with other string instruments from around the world like the oud, the ukulele, and the baglama – he so handily wields on stage, much of the music we know today wouldn’t exist. Many of the realities of our times - of culture, society, and civilization wouldn’t either.
It was never Sina’s plan to exist at a crossroads - his personal and musical roots bleeding into the pain and complexity of current sociopolitcs. His path – like any aspiring artist – was supposed to be to simply create. But, here we are, and here he is, meeting the moment with a global tour, headlining stages around the world with a melding of a rare instrumental past with a global electronic modernity into a sound that couldn’t be more timely.
In a different timeline, his music at the very least would be a daring intersection of connections. Connections between Iran and North America, between strings and electronic music, between old and new, just to name a few. He deftly tethers akin geographical, musical, and epochal spaces that have seldom been fused, and rarely if ever been done so acutely.
But in our shared timeline, his music does the aforementioned still, while also defying propaganda and hate, shining a light on the truth of a dynamic, diverse people and culture that don’t ask to be vilified, but rather - like almost all people - be heard, and respected.
To hear Sina Bathaie’s music is to feel something inescapably of his Iranian roots. Not only do his track names - take Tehran - point directly to them, but his masterful and unique sound teleports a listener to a bazaar overwhelmed with the scent of charred Kabab Koobideh and delicately floral saffron.
And yet, his music has always been something more. He’s no repeatable relic of ancient music, or even of strictly instrumental current sonic spaces, but rather the manifestation of it all seamlessly brought into an electronic frame. His music simultaneously transports its listeners to main stages of the current festival circuit.
On stage, Sina Bathaie tightropes that reality with a quiet confidence. At Cervantes, he had no opener, just a ballroom slowly filling with fans, tethered to his music for a broad array of reasons. On a table, his mixing and producing equipment waited for his arrival. And when he entered the room, without saying a word for the first few tracks, he submerged the crowd in something equal parts familiar and brilliantly inventive.
There are a lot of lo-fi producers and instrumentalists who though embody a nostalgic simplicity in their sound, wish they could do so with the elements of uniqueness that prove Sina’s signature so ubiquitous. When one hears and sees Sina Bathaie play and mix his music on stage, it's easy for the mind to wander to the multi-instrumental prowess of a one-of-one producer like French Kiwi Juice, or the retrofuturistic analogue of BADBADNOTGOD, not because any of their sounds are similar, but because they tether nostalgic instrumentals with electronic techniques to ultimately sound not quite like anyone else.
For two hours, the experience is unique, of course, but also immersive and warm. Like any artist worth their salt, his sound navigates a rich exploration of emotions and tempo without ever losing grip on its innermost id. And that identity’s roots melding with its global modernity could never be more relevant than they are today. If we all took a breath, took a minute, and listened to Sina Bathaie, perhaps there’d be just a little more calm and understanding in the world.
And if you’re able, you should buy a ticket, take an evening, and catch him perform somewhere along his ongoing world tour.
Full gallery from his Denver show here:
