Hamasyan first came to real prominence in 2015 (he had been recording for 9 years before then) with the release of his Mockroot album which combined western jazz with the music of his Armenian homeland. Over these influences was laid a shell of dazzling virtuosity and this current album shows no weakening in his powers. If anything the intervening years have continued to lead people to believe that he must be descended from Anne Boleyn as it is difficult to believe the sheer density of notes can be produced by someone with fewer than six fingers on each hand.
Whilst opener Prelude for all seekers reinforces these
conjectures with its dense opening piano runs chiming brightly the following Yerevan Sunrise is taken at a more
contemplative pace and the piano is part of a more panoramic arrangement of
various keys and drum programming, most of which are provided by Hamasyan
before Melkonyan’s buzzing trumpet brings thing to a close. The title track, Manifeste, is an epic, combining
stomping, cinematic passages, (suggestive of both Weather Report and Cossack
dancing), with moments of greater delicacy which serve to highlight the power
in the stronger sequences as waves of multi-tracked voices reinforce the
breadth of Hamasyan’s vision. One Body,
One Blood changes mood again. In waltz time and featuring the voices of the
Yerevan State Chamber Choir, it combines feeling of nature with the idea of
myth suggesting both the earthly universal and the inter-stellar in a way that,
these days, only Kamasi Washington attempts.
Seven
Sorrows is aptly titled with Manukyan’s mournful, yearning
cello as the lead voice foregrounded over rippling piano and hollow, rattling
drums. Hamasyan’s piano is full of runs, probing and questioning, throwing out
angles, braking down and running again, cutting through the wash of synths. There is more cheer in the open,
pastoral vistas of Years Passing (for
Akram), a short, delicate piece with Melkonyan’s piercing trumpet floated
over a simple piano motif. By way of contrast (again) Dardahan opens like an 80s pop pomp rock stomp before we get more
of that dazzling rich piano which is overwhelmed by heavy chording and thrown
out shards of stabbing phrases. There is much of the same bombast on War Poem, this time, given the themes,
with greater justification. Fluid piano runs and complex rhythms, aided by Nick
Llerandi’s guitar, give it a prog feel.
The
Fire Child (Vahagn is born) is one of the key pieces
on the album and is based on a ‘pre-Christian Mythological Song’. All the parts
(vocals, bass synth and synths) are performed by Hamasyan and, again it has
that ancient legend, epic feel whilst also showing the more recent influence of
David Bowie’s last album Blackstar.
Ultradance is full of fire, suggestive of those piano trios that broke with
the tradition, such as the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, and packed the music with dense,
loud, exciting, driving rhythms as the dominant feature rather than the
melodies of the likes of Bill Evans or Keith Jarrett. Per Mane returns to melody, though the rhythms still feature,
strongly pummelling away behind the stellar piano playing and the floating
vocals of Asta Mamikonyan. Hamasyan adds
whistling to his arsenal of talents on A Window from one heart to another (For Rumi) before
A Eye (The digital Leviathan) which
starts in delicate melodic form before the furious angular rhythms break over,
a portent of what may come if we surrender everything to the digital Leviathan.
There is only fear and warning in the heaviness of the music with any hint of
optimism crushed beneath the weight. It makes Black Sabbath sound like Timmy
Mallett. (Contemporary cultural references – we got’ em!).
There are grains of hope
and survival in the closing National
Repentance Anthem which again features the soaring voices of the choir
lifting us up over a fragile, slowly picked melody from Hamasyan that builds
steadily, supporting the voices as they lift into the heavens.
Hamasyan’s bold energetic
vision, quite magnificent at times and frequently overwhelming, is played out
across this album with roots that reach long into the past married to very
contemporary music. It swings from wide open spaces minimalism to
claustrophobic maelstroms, often within a single piece. It is, perhaps, the
latter that makes this an album for these times. Dave Sayer
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