Rostam’s ‘American Stories’ Fuses Persian Instruments With American Pop

Overview

• American Stories, Rostam Batmanglij’s third solo album, arrives this month as a concise nine-track release running about 30 minutes.
• The music blends Persian and Middle Eastern timbres with U.S. genres, using instruments like the saz and pedal steel to argue that American sound is hybrid by nature.
• The final tracks turn overtly political, with The Weight referencing pro‑Palestine campus encampments and arrests at Columbia University.
• Hardy features a guest verse from Clairo and a sample of Georges Delerue’s Chorale performed by Hugh Wolff and the London Sinfonietta.
• Rostam has been finishing a new studio in Manhattan’s Chinatown and posting making‑of videos, offering a window into his process beyond his well‑known work with Vampire Weekend and artists like Frank Ocean, Solange, and Haim.