Magical
This beautiful and brash album from Armenian, American
resident Tigran Hamasyan combines virtuoso piano playing across a range of
genres and then injections of Armenian folk song, jazz and classical motifs,
electronic pulses and other paraphernalia, and at times exquisite vocals from
Hamasyan himself and Areni Agbabian, solo and choric. You can be drifting
aurally along a sweet folkesque melody and then abruptly shifted by pounding
rock beats; or similarly as with second track Erista, lullaby-like tinklings and sudden progrock disruptions. It
is playful as well as powerful. Third Lament
begins with classical strings and an operatic/folk-pretty vocal, the
peacefulness like a musical meditation, and this continues to sweep and soar
without a genre interruption, so the surprise of not being surprised –
certainly on that first listen – delights: knowing, it is an expectant calm.
Fourth Drip immediately threatens with
pounded staccato piano beats, and then there are sax bursts with bass-and-effects
jazz elements, the vocals merging into clever collections. The whole album
continues with these consummate and magical musical manipulations. Can’t wait
for the imminent release of Mockroot.
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