After years of returning regularly to her homeland of Iran to study Persian classical music and learn its repertoire from the masters, Mamak Khadem came to realize that she wanted to be more than a vocalist in the traditional mould.

“As a teenage immigrant to the U.S. I was exposed to many different cultures and musics,” she says, reached at her home in L.A. “I wanted to create my own style—accessible to everyone, but with an Iranian signature. It was a challenge. Such ideas were not appropriate to the classical-music purists.”

In the early ’90s, Khadem joined Axiom of Choice, formed by multi-instrumentalist and composer Loga Ramin Torkian. The band helped forge a new Middle Eastern sound, one that balanced respect for Persian tradition, a desire to innovate, and western influences. After Axiom, which released three brilliant albums, disbanded in 2004, Torkian went on to form the trio Niyaz with his wife, Azam Ali, and Carmen Rizzo, while Khadem continued to teach, perform, and research her art, which led to travels.

“For a number of years I went to Armenia, Turkey, and Greece. I find their cultures and music particularly inspiring and had a desire to explore the differences from my Iranian background. Instead, I ended up discovering how many things we all share—especially in music. I felt an urge to work with the traditional melodies I encountered.”

Khadem’s debut solo album, Jostojoo, distills her thoughts, memories, and desires from those years. The elegantly arranged music is a blend of classical Persian and other Middle Eastern traditions with subtle elements of trancey electronica, rock, and early music. It resonates long after the final notes.

“With Axiom, we primarily were composing original music,” Khadem says. “With this project, I wanted to start with existing melodies that had been haunting me—sparking my imagination and inspiring a very personal journey. Jostojoo gave me an opportunity to widen my musical family, and I was thrilled to collaborate with the combination of players from folk traditions, world music, and the jazz scene.”

For the words of Iranian songs such as the rousing closer “Bigharar”, Khadem turned to young poets such as Siroos Jamali. But to provide the lyrics for songs from other lands—the lilting title track based on Greek folk tradition, or the plaintive yet uptempo opener “Baz Amadam”, whose melody comes from Armenia—she turned to Persian Sufi poets of the distant past.

“I soon realized I can express myself more openly and effectively in Farsi, so I married the melodies to the work of some Persian master poets that I continue to turn to for inspiration, Rumi and Baba Taher.”

Khadem’s second solo album, due for release later this year, is based on the work of a more contemporary Iranian poet, the late Sohrab Sepehri. “The new recording came from a very different period of my life from Jostojoo—one that involved far less travelling, and really connecting with my husband, Hamid, who was in the process of immigrating to the U.S. from Iran. It’s a bit more meditative, as Sepehri was a man who chose a very simple life and had his own spiritual path—I like to call him a contemporary Sufi. It’s more spare and simple in the arrangements than Jostojoo—all my albums have to reflect my life at the time.”

Mamak Khadem and her quintet play the Capilano Performing Arts Theatre on Saturday (January 22).