CD review: Tigran Hamasyan – The Bird Of A Thousand Voices – 2024: Video, CD cover

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.

Since he began recording in 2006, Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan has often treated his albums as interdisciplinary works, attempting to unite jazz/fusion with the folk music of Armenia while promoting folklore/historical elements of his homeland. This time, however, in his new album he goes a few steps further, since “The Bird Of A Thousand Voices” is a project that includes the present music album, an online video game, musical theater, a series of films and an art installation . So it is a really ambitious project in which Tigran put infinite work and his soul, as he confessed in the beautiful interview he gave us.

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.

Before we go to the music, let’s see the single concept behind all the above projects. “The Bird Of A Thousand Voices” brings to life the ancient Armenian fairy tale Hazaran Blbul, which translates as the nightingale of a thousand songs. This is a truly amazing story, a genuine Eastern fairy tale, full of lessons, emotion, epic and mysticism. Very roughly, it is about the story of the young prince Areg who leaves his kingdom to search for a mythical bird whose songs can bring peace and harmony to the world. As the story unfolds, Areg will be betrayed, love, cross dimensions and realms, fight gods and demons, and more. It is not necessary to read it to enjoy the album, but if you do, the musical experience is greatly maximized.

His collaboration with Van Leer extends here to two cinematically ambitious music videos, a documentary, and an interactive online game. Hamasyan 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.

Hamasyan’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.

Such an epic story could not but have the necessary musical accompaniment: in this album we therefore find 24 compositions for all the main episodes of Hazaran Blbul, in a total of 91 minutes of music. It becomes clear that this is a gigantic project that requires the listener to be patient and methodical. I would say that, proportionately, it requires love equivalent to that which the creator put in, if you at least want to unlock the secrets of the album to the fullest and derive the maximum enjoyment. But the music is so beautiful, so rich and moving, that the listener’s task becomes very easy.

Here we will find all the elements that a typical Tigran album has, his special hybrid that is between jazz, traditional folk melodies/scales and extreme polyrhythmic patterns that gave him the nickname jazzshuggah and always make his music flirt a lot with progressive rock. In addition, however, “The Bird Of A Thousand Voices” functions as a soundtrack and incorporates many such elements. We will find short compositions that use ambient and electronic elements – indicatively the self-titled, almost electronica “Areg’s Calling”, “Guidance”, Bells Of Memory”, “Sing Me A Song When You Will Be At The Place Where All Is Bliss” – and, in general, the first time Tigran uses so many synths, extending what started on 2020’s fantastic “The Call Within”.

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. Hamasyan 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. Hamasyan 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 Agbabian’s vocal that transforms these disparate parts into a canvas of resonant beauty.

Despite the stylistic menage here, Hamasyan 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.

In another soundtrack-esque practice, the album has a few central motifs. One is found in the opener “The Kingdom” and the other in “The Curse”, with the two motifs heard (same or variant) in several compositions of the album, permeating it throughout. Especially for “The Curse” which as a single shocked a lot of people with its imagination and terrible heaviness – and it is indeed one of the most shocking songs that one can hear – you will find enough of it in the album. You will also find moments of corresponding gravity and heavy/avant-prog intensity, with the most complex compositions of extreme prog being “The Quest Begins”, “Red, White And Black Worlds” and “The Wall Of Death And Resurrection”, in moments where the music is also called upon to “describe” very epic and agonizing scenes of the unfolding story.

Tigran’s performance is, of course, shocking. The man takes you on a journey with his playing from the greatest objections to the deepest peace, with incredible skill and expression. He also sings a lot, with the presence of human voices being very strong on the album overall. The other key players are also amazing: Mark Karapetian on bass, the wonderful singer Areni Agbabian and the incredible Nate Wood on drums, whose performance is crucial on the record. To my great delight, the album also features my beloved Sofia Jernberg of The End – her experimentation on “Temptations” is unique.

Tigran’s performance is, of course, shocking. The man takes you on a journey with his playing from the greatest objections to the deepest peace, with incredible skill and expression. He also sings a lot, with the presence of human voices being very strong on the album overall. The other key players are also amazing: Mark Karapetian on bass, the wonderful singer Areni Agbabian and the incredible Nate Wood on drums, whose performance is crucial on the record. To my great delight, the album also features my beloved Sofia Jernberg of The End – her experimentation on “Temptations” is unique.

I have used so many words to convey some important technical elements, but what the words have not yet captured is the feeling of “The Bird Of A Thousand Voices”. The truth is that words are generally impoverished when asked to describe experiences, and this album should be considered as such. It is a very long musical journey, full of changes in atmospheres and emotions. It can be epic, mystical, sad or dramatic, and in many moments it can offer deep emotion, like when Areg falls in love with Manushak (“Areg And Manushak”) or when the story (almost) ends with the best song on the record , “The Eternal Bird Sings And The Garden Blooms Again”. The journey is very long and definitely not for everyone. But for some, certainly for me, “The Bird Of A Thousand Voices” can stand before their eyes like a modern musical monument.

Tigran Hamasyan has released some amazing albums so far, such as “A Fable”, “Shadow Theater” and “Mockroot”. Personally I always avoid unnecessary comparisons – an artist should never compete with himself – but it’s hard for me not to see “The Bird Of A Thousand Voices” as his densest, most eclectic and most ambitious work. Moreover, it seems to me like one of those few musical creations that can carry on their backs the expectations of even the most demanding – or the most dreamy! – music lovers. Beyond genres and beyond what we usually expect from an album, my assessment is that Tigran Hamasyan has crafted a masterpiece.

1 The Kingdom
2 The Curse (Blood Of An Innocent Is Spilled)
3 The Bird Of A Thousand Voices
4 Areg’s Calling (Towards The World Above)
5 The Path Of No Return
6 The Quest Begins
7 Areg And Manushak (He Saw Her Reflection In The Water)
8 The Saviour Is Condemned
9 Guidance (Areg Meets Zaman)
10 Flaming Horse And The Thunderbolt Sword (From The Depths Of The Sea)
11 Red, White And Black Worlds
12 Bells Of Memory
13 Only The One Who Brought The Bird Can Make It Sing
14 Prophecy Of A Sacrifice
15 The Demon Of Akn Anatak
16 Temptations (Follow The Luminous Feather)
17 Forty Days In The Realm Of Bottomless Eye (He Brings Light Into The Soil Of Evil)
18 He Refuses To Be Immortal (The Goddess Of Paradise Gives Him The Enchanting Bird)
19 The Return (Through Vast Deserts, Seas And Dark Mountains)
20 Betrayed By Brothers
21 The Well Of Death And Resurrection
22 Sing Me A Song When You Wil Be At The Place Where All Is Bliss
23 The Eternal Birds Sings And The Garden Blooms Again
24 Postlude (After Seven Winters)

Tigran Hamasyan (keyboard, piano),
Areni Agbabian (vocalist, vocal effects),
Nate Wood (musician, drums),
Marc Karapetian (musician, bass)