For some, even the mere mention of Iran evokes the ghosts of political agendas and conflict, and Arif Mirbaghi knows this.

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Mirbaghi, who sees himself as an artistic director as well as being the bassist in Zuze (pronounced zoo-zay), strives to depoliticize the Iranian question in his own unique way.

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“I’m attempting to make a kind of music that doesn’t have to speak to the pain and the suffering of the modern political history of Iran,” he explains. “What I’m speaking to is the joy and the celebration that we have within our people. And I’m celebrating the fact that we have these stunning, enigmatic, long-winded melodies coming into confluence with the beautiful Western harmony and global rhythms.”

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That is the sound of Zuze – one that is immediately recognizable, while remaining inherently unique.

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A first-generation Iranian-Canadian, Mirbaghi grew up in a very Iranian home, where Persian songs became “the ambient noise” of his childhood.

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Though he grew up playing prog-metal, then moving to roots and jazz, another type of music remained in his bones. It took a friend to push him to finally start creating the music that had impacted so much of his life.

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“I think that everybody can relate to the idea of having a project that they want to start but it’s seemingly forever sitting on the back burner,” he says. “In your heart, you know that it’s a good idea, but you’re probably never going to see it come to fruition. So for many years, I had an idea of playing Iranian music – my parents being Iranian, and me being Iranian-Canadian – but I felt like I was busy doing other things.

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“It took my friend Bruce [MacKinnon] – who is the piano player and, by all degrees, the music director in the band – actually calling me out on it, saying, ‘We had a wonderful conversation about starting an Iranian band, why don’t you actually do it?’ [...] Then he came over and we flipped through this book of folk tunes that I had and we started coming up with our own arrangements and then custom-tailored the band based on personality and chemistry and really, who told the best jokes.”

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Zuze moved from its two-member origins to its current 10-member roster. This, while it certainly has its challenges – like arranging schedules – helped bring the beautiful music to life. Though the band may not be a democracy, members are still encouraged to find his/her own voice within the song, as well as bring their own ideas to the table.

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“Nobody starts a 10-piece band to make any extraordinary amount of money, that’s one thing,” says Mirbaghi. “But the members of the group were pretty much hand-selected based on previous experiences of myself working with them or Bruce working with them.

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“Good God, am I fortunate to play with them, because when we play music they really dig deep and they really express themselves. I think that it’s important, especially because a lot of them are not Iranian, so they have to kind of trust this idea that what we’re doing is important in an Iranian context, and is relevant to people who identify as Persian.”

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The group recorded Zaar – which was released in May of last year – and it’s a sprawling instrumental album of 10 tracks combining violin, guitar, trumpet, flute, piano, bass, and percussion, among other instruments.

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The songs, each unique in their singularity, become hard to define; Zuze pulls from so many sources at once, yet always remains locked into themselves and to the song. They do not fall under the scope of “World Music”, nor would Mirbaghi want them to. Instead, they border on their own horizons.

“It was always somewhere between a strong Canadian identity, and a powerful heritage,” explains Mirbaghi. “And there’s sort of this liminal experience there, there’s this sort of nascent third culture that gets born, and that’s this first generation concept. And so when Zuze started, I sort of knew I couldn’t authentically have an Iranian band.

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“But if I wanted to be honest to myself, I had to create a kind of music that was in line with how I understood creativity, how I understood what artistic expression was. And frankly, that is rooted in a Western tradition. So what I have attempted to do – and the public can decide whether we’ve done it or not – is revitalize Iranian folk songs and find an honest way of interpreting them in a first-generation lens.”

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What makes Zuze so enthralling and captivating is that there is no prerequisite for enjoying their music. In its own right, it stands as music that anyone can easily enjoy in any context.

“I hope that people who aren’t Iranian,” says Mirbaghi, “I hope that people who are any manner of first-generation – and by that I mean any manner of in-between-two-places – easily and readily and happily find a home in the music we create.”