Born in Tehran on 3 October 1970, Ali spent most of her childhood in Panchgani, India.^[1] Ali and her mother moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1985. She studied the santoor under Persian master Manoochehr Sadeghi, which led to the rediscovery of her voice.^[2]

In 1996, Ali formed "alternative world" group VAS with percussionist Greg Ellis after meeting the year prior at a concert at UCLA.^[1] She and her husband, Loga Ramin Torkian, are part of another group, Niyaz, an Iranian acoustic electronic group.^[3][4]

In 2005, Azam Ali was featured on Enter the Chicken, a 2005 Buckethead album, singing the song "Coma" with Serj Tankian.^[5]

In 2006, Ali was featured on Nefes/Breath, an album by Turkish ney player and DJ Mercan Dede, singing the song "Dem."

Solo career edit

In 2002, Ali released her first solo album, Portals of Grace.^[6] This was followed in 2006 by Elysium for the Brave, which reached No. 10 on Billboard's World Albums chart on 23 September 2006.^[7] Ali's third album, From Night to the Edge of Day (2011), is a collection of lullabies inspired by her son.^[8] Lamentation of Swans – A Journey Towards Silence (2013), Ali's fourth album, is a joint effort with her husband Loga Ramin Torkian that began in 2009 and explores the intimate spaces they had to carve out for themselves to escape the demands of touring.

In 2003 she sang "Inama Nushif" in the fictional Fremen language for the soundtrack to the 2003 Sci Fi Channel mini-series Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, written by Brian Tyler.^[9] In 2006 she was featured vocals in the movie 300. In 2011, Ali's vocals were featured several times on the soundtrack of Uncharted 3. In 2012, she was the vocalist for Square Enix's Final Fantasy video game tech demo Agni's Philosophy.^[10] She appeared as vocalist on the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 for the track "Pakistan Run".

In September 2013, Ali announced that she would provide vocals for the soundtrack of the film Thor: The Dark World.^[11]

On 31 May 2019, Ali announced her next album, the self-produced PHANTOMS, along with its first single and music video, "Hope."^[12] The next single was the album's self-titled track, "Phantoms," which was released on 12 July.^[13] The album was released on 13 September 2019.

Solo albums

• Portals of Grace (2002)
• Elysium for the Brave (2006)
• From Night to the Edge of Day (2011)
• Lamentation of Swans – A Journey Towards Silence (2013) [Credited to Azam Ali and Loga R Torkian]
• Phantoms (2019)^[14]

With VAS

• Sunyata (1997)
• Offerings (1998)
• In the Garden of Souls (2000)
• Feast of Silence (2004)

With Niyaz

• Niyaz (2005)
• Nine Heavens (2008)
• Sumud (2012)
• Sumud Acoustic EP (2013)
• The Fourth Light (2015)

With Roseland

• Roseland (2007)

With VGM

• Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (2007)
• Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011)

With Mercan Dede

• Breath (song "Dem") (2006)

With Buckethead

• Enter the Chicken (song "Coma")

With Shahrokh Yadegari & Keyavash Nourai

• Green Memories (2008)

Greg Ellis

• Kala Rupa Explorations in Rhythm (2001)

Solo

• Where's Neil When You Need Him? (2006, song "The Cold Black Key")

• Official website
• Niyaz website