Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Hayren CD Review

Kim Kashkashian, Tigran Mansurian, Robyn Schulkowsky, 2003.

ECM - what a cool record label!
Jan Garbarek, Tod Gustafsen, Keith Jarrett, Kim Kashkashian...

I first heard KK on Jan Garbarek's "In Praise of Dreams" and was taken with her viola playing - I in fact was mildly (ok, a great deal) envious of her...I mean, duetting with the great JG...another one of life's seeming unfairnesses (to me)....

On with the review!

Hayren is a collaboration between the 3 Armenians listed at the top of the post - Mansurian is a composer, and Schulkowsky is a percussionist.

The moods of the pieces vary hugely, from the ecstatic to the sombre and soulful...they are tonal/modal and have at least a hint of improvisation to them.

After listening to Janacek, you will have more of a handle on this stuff...definitely an album to listen to several times before reaching a verdict (if you are in the habit of reaching verdicts)...

Mansurian sometimes vocalises on some of the pieces...an unusual voice/vocal technique, not without charm, but decidedly unconventional.

9/10.

No comments:

Post a Comment