Photo by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Text by Afshin Pourasgheri

My name is Afshin Pourasgheri. I was born in Iran and my family immigrated to Australia when I was three years old.

I fell in love with the sounds of the slide guitar in 2001. I have always had a passion for traditional Indian Ragas, and BLUES music. In 2003 I discovered an instrument made by Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya (Grammy nominated in 2009) called the Chaturangui.

The Chaturangui consists of 22 strings, 12 of which are sympathetic, 2 are drones, 6 are standard guitar strings and the bottom 2 are rhythmic strings. I got one custom made and in 2007 went on over and spent some time in Kolkatta (Culcutta) training and receiving lessons from Debashish.

This is my axe of choice at the moment. I love music, and love sharing it with the people. I don’t have a myspace, or any recordings just my instrument. I hope once I am more confident with my music to develop a tight set and a CD and start performing in venues until then I will play my heart out in the underground till the next place.

Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi a musician himself and the editor of this on-line magazine found me at my spot on the platform of Union Square-14th Street (L line) subway station when I was playing. He videotaped me on the spot.

By the way I am leaving back to Australia around New Year. So hope to see you readers at my spot.

Khodahafez!

Please check out my teacher’s video: