Band for U.S. Tour Includes Chris Tordini (bass) and Arthur Hnatek (drums)
with Special Guests Areni Agbabian (voice) and Charles Altura (guitar) in NYC, LA, Boston
Ever since the very beginning, Tigran Hamsayan seems possessed by the idea of making the spectrum of his music as broad as possible. He was only 19 when he found himself catapulted to the forefront of the music scene after winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk Competition (in 2006, its president was Herbie Hancock). Knighted by the world’s jazzosphere, the young Armenian was quick to avoid being “catalogued”: after trekking around with the unavoidable rhythm section formed by the Moutin brothers, in 2009 Tigran set up a group, a real one, alongside some of the New York scene’s young Turks from the influential band Kneebody, like saxophonist Ben Wendel or drummer Nate Wood. Christened Aratta Rebirth, his new quintet showed its debt as much to traditional Armenian music as to the labyrinthine metal of Meshuggah or the jazz fusion of Chick Corea. Three years later, the kid shed that skin and went through another transformation with the album A Fable, stripping himself down to the essentials in duets with his own piano. The menu was just as spare: splinters of minimalist pop, melodies from his native country, and some inhabited re-readings of standards like Someday My Prince Will Come. Plus something new: Tigran supplied vocals for a few tracks. The opus gained plaudits from around the globe, and in France he received the laurels of a “Victoire de la Musique” Award.
Click here to listen to “Road Song” from the upcoming album “Shadow Theater”
With Shadow Theater, the pianist has continued to pursue his enterprise of massive construction. After exploring the universe of Armenia’s fables, he’s turned to another tradition for inspiration, this time more visual than oral. His personal Shadow Theater, which gives the record its name, should be seen as an invitation to pass over to the other side of the mirror, into an imaginary, dreamlike world which owes as much to Tim Burton as it does to real shadow theatre: an art that it simple in appearance, and where silhouettes come to life behind a backcloth as if by magic. It’s “a minimal, false world,” confides Tigran, “but a world that expresses truth through that lie.” The album Shadow Theater is also limpid in appearance, and it brims over with dozens of the figurines which inhabit the pianist’s head, from Madlib to Sigur Rós via Steve Reich. With this record, the young Armenian is still exploring new trails, both sonic and electronic; and it also asserts his claim as a hair-raising songwriter/singer whose voice has the timbre of fragility.
