Pianist, composer, and keyboardist
Tigran Hamasyan
is no stranger to musical eclecticism. His catalog offers complex, intricate albums that transcend most genre boundaries. While best known as a jazz pianist, it is but one dimension in his musical character. The various folk and sacred music traditions of Armenia provide inspiration for compositions that crisscross jazz, folk, indie pop, classical, prog, and metal. Since the 2010s, he has been collaborating with filmmaker
Ruben Van Leer
. They realized the visual musical experience
Shadow Theater
in Paris, and have worked on various music video projects together.
The Bird of a Thousand Voices
is another one.
Hamasyan
's most complex compositional work, it's based on an Armenian folk tale about a prince's quest to find the bird whose song heals those cursed by indifference. The pianist began this 90-plus-minute, 24-track work in 2019, completed it in 2023, and premiered it at the Holland Festival in June 2024. His collaboration with
Van Leer
extends here to two cinematically ambitious music videos, a documentary, and an interactive online game.
has also created a unique website for the release. He is assisted by drummer/percussionist
Nate Wood
, vocalist
Areni Agbabian
, bassist
Marc Karapetian
, Swedish-Ethiopian singer
Sofia Jernberg
, and classical vocalist
Vahram Sarkissian
.
's instrument choices include a host of analog synths and piano. These compositions range across and often combine synth-heavy prog metal and ambient electronica, jazz improvisation and ethereal pop with melodic Armenian folk music as the thread that binds them.
Opener "The Kingdom" commences with gauzy synths (think
Jan Bang
) in circular patterns, slamming blastbeat drumming, and
Agbabian
's sublime wordless soprano guided by
Karapetian
's bass.
sounds like he's trying to adapt prog metal without using guitars. The single "The Curse" commences as a folk ballad on piano with whistling bass and drums before exploding into thunderous prog and then segueing into the mysterious title cut, full of economical classical piano, atmospheric synths, and wispy wordless vocals.
sings on several tracks here, including the intimate piano ballad "Areg's Calling." "The Quest Begins" offers a piano intro and circular harmonic pattern that recalls the work of modernist composer
Edvard Mirzoyan
. "Red, White and Black Worlds" is a questing collision between prog, metal, and jazz improv, and "Prophecy of a Sacred" weds folk and vanguard classical piano before a choir of ethereal wordless voices claim the fore. While "The Well of Death and Resurrection" offers a complex rhythmic and harmonic base worthy of
Frank Zappa
, the third from last track, "The Eternal Bird Sings and the Garden Blooms Again," joins
ELP
-esque prog, indie pop, and jazz syncopation in framing
's vocal that transforms these disparate parts into a canvas of resonant beauty. Despite the stylistic menage here,
manages to realize the most cohesive, focused, and liberated work in his catalog to date. He has issued many fine recordings --
Red Hail
,
Mockroot
, and
An Ancient Observer
, among them -- but the stunning, kaleidoscopic
Bird of a Thousand Voices
towers above them. ~ Thom Jurek