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"Gentle Boy, Graceful Girl" from Old Street
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Old Street
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CD Review

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Armenians have endured their share of suffering over the past century.  In 1915, Armenia fell under the horrible period of mass genocide (a topic recently explored in Armenian Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's Aratat), brought on by an iron fisted Turkish dictatorship.  Artists, writers, and priests were targets of attack and many Armenians fled the country and found new homes in Paris, Beirut and Alexandria leading to a wave of Armenian diaspora.  And in 1988, an earthquake killed 25,000 people and left 500,000 without homes.  Following that catastrophe, after Armenia receded from the Soviet Union in the 1990's, in the east, a war broke out with Azerbaijan and in the west, Turkey established a blockade and in the north, Georgia cut off gas lines and during a grueling winter. Since that time, Armenian life calmed down and a musical renaissance developed.  Vocalists Arman Aghajanyan (composer), Ohanna Mtghyan (lyricist) and Armen Papkiyan (vocal arranger) left for the US during the 1990's and today, the musicians comprise the Cascade Folk Trio.  Despite Armenia's grim history, you would expect the trio to write songs of bitter irony, yet the bulk of their repertoire focuses on love, romance and longing.

The group named itself after a district in the city of Yereva, where lovers meet at a cascade fountain and fall in love.  However, as is the case with the lyrical content of the trio's repertoire, lovers might meet, but it isn't always a two way street.  In the folk song, Gentle Boy, Graceful Girl with words penned by Avedik Isahakian tells of a lover that ran away.  Lingering Return reflects on a woman waiting for her lover to return and Seven Years tells of a lover that left with the wind seven years ago.  You Are A Doe, Garden Flowers and Burley Boy reflect on gentle courtship.  However, not all the compositions are romantic in nature.  Old Street looks back to an idealistic time when one could smell the aroma of granny's baking bread and the old neighborhood.  Bad Days tells us that bad days come and go and Homeland portrays the sadness of someone living in exile.

The musical arrangements are colored by Armenian traditions, but you can also hear tinges of Arabic, Greek and Turkish pop, Silk Road instruments, Middle Eastern percussion and American jazz.  Nine of the thirteen tracks are original and all of them struck a balance between preserving tradition and contemporary influences.  Armenia's acclaimed arranger, Karen Margaryan came on board in arranging some of the tracks.  Several exotic instruments of the Silk Road, such as zurna, dhol, zarb, kamancheh, kanun, tar and uda grace the carefully composed songs.  And the Armenian national instrument, duduk, (which came to prominence in the West after Peter Gabriel recorded the duduk player Djivan Gasparyan on the Real World label) plays a starring role on the song, Old Street.  The a cappella Bad Days features impassioned vocals of Ohanna Mtghyan along with the other trio members.  Ohanna's vocals share similar range and texture to Axiom of Choice vocalist, Mamak Khadem.  In fact, Axiom of Choice, who also marries Armenian and Persian instrumentation shares a commonality with Cascade Folk Trio.

The titular track fuses Parisian cafe accordion with tinges of Arabic-Persian music.  Burley Boy adds jazz piano and drums.  And I am Madly in Love blends the old world with contemporary sensibility, heavy on the Middle Eastern beats with a hint of cocktail lounge.  The Cascade Folk Trio's Old Street is a remarkable recording that will not only ignite an interest in Armenian culture and music, but also chart a successful course for its talented musicians. 

 12/12/04 >> go there
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