Le chant du signe was made in Iran, in the ruins of the "tent city", built in the middle of the desert, near the archaeological site of Persepolis, about 1000 kms south of Tehran. These structures housed the heads of state from around the world who were invited to celebrate the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire, orchestrated in 1971 by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The event cost nearly $300 million and triggered widespread international criticism and hostility towards the Iranian regime, including from political opponent Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini. These opulent festivities would contribute to the fall of the Shah a few years later during the 1979 revolution.

The text is taken from the Behistun Inscription by Darius I, the great king of the Persian Empire (550 BC) who founded Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. RY